THE 



CAUSE AND CURE 



INFIDELITY: 



INCLUDING 



A NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR'S UNBELIEF 



THE MEANS OF HIS RESCUE. 



BY REV. DAVID NELSON, M.D. 



SECOND STEREOTYPE EDITION, CORRECTED BY THE AUTHOR. 



PUBLISHED BY THE 
AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 

150 NASSAU-STREET, NEW YORK. 



"Bl 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1841, by David Nelson, in 
the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of iNew York. 



Right of publishing transferred to the American Tract Society. 






The President of Centre College, Kentucky, has well said in 
reference to this work, that " after all the learned, eloquent, and 
argumentative treatises which have heen published, on different 
branches of the Christian evidences, something was still needed — 
something adapted to the peculiar tastes and condition of our 
community," especially to many vigorous minds of the West, 
where the author's life has been chiefly spent, '"to excite curi- 
osity, awaken attention, and stimulate inquiry — something which 
should bring down abstruse argument to the apprehension of men 
in general, and present striking facts to arrest the attention of 
the indifferent and the sceptical. Facts drawn from history, 
science, and observation, are here placed in a strong and often 
startling light, and there is an earnestness, a personality, a 
warm lifeblood of reality running through the whole, which 
gives to the written argument much of the interest and power 
of an oral address." 



CONTENTS, 



CHAPTER I. 
CAUSE OF INFIDELITY, 13 

CHAPTER II. 
Man a fallen being : hatred of God ; examples; loving darkness, 14 

CHAPTER III. 

A trifling falsehood influences human belief against the Bible more 
than gigantic truth in favor of it : Etna and Vesuvius ; strata of 
lava; Chinese records of antiquity, 19 

CHAPTER IV. 
Facts such as unbelievers do not learn, 26 

CHAPTER V. 

Men receive truth slowly, but error promptly : conversation with a 
statesman, 29 

CHAPTER VI. 
Scoffers shall come, 31 

CHAPTER VII. 

Scoffers are unacquainted with the facts of the Bible : predictions in 
the epistles to the seven churches in Asia, 34 

CHAPTER VIII. 
The subject continued: conversation with a senator; predictions of 
Babylon, 39 

CHAPTER IX. 
The subject continued : Tyre, . . 47 



6 -CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER X. 
The subject continued : Damascus; important inquiries; the plough- 
man, 49 

CHAPTER XI. 

The great and the learned do not acquaint themselves with Bible 
facts : prophecies of Egypt, 55 

CHAPTER XII. 
The subject continued : prediction of the destruction of Jerusalem, 59 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Scoffers of the last days are wilfully ignorant of Bible language : an 
aged Kentuckian, 68 

CHAPTER XIV. 
The subject continued : prediction of Nineveh, 71 

CHAPTER XY. 
The subject continued : the volcano, 73 

CHAPTER XVI. 
The subject continued : the lodge, 75 

CHAPTER XVII. 

Men have loved darkness rather than light : conversation between a 
member of Congress and a physician, 76 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
The subject continued : the resurrection, 80 

CHAPTER XIX. 
The subject continued : testimony of Pagan writers, , ... 88 

CHAPTER XX. 
Inconsistency of unbelievers : testimony overlooked ; Acts of Pilate, 92 

CHAPTER XXI. 
Unceasing cause of Infidelity in its various forms : testimony of Cel- 
sus, 95 

CHAPTER XXII. 
The subject continued, 100 



CONTENTS. 7 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

Inconsistency and credulity of the rejecters of trie gospel : the aged 

school-teacher; pagan testimony to the character and number of 

the early Christians; their patience under suffering; were they 

either deceived or deceivers ? 102 

CHAPTER XXIV. 
Men who cast away the Bible are credulous in the extreme : the 
sceptical moralist; influence of Christianity upon morals, . 114 

CHAPTER XXV. 
Men adopt false opinions without inquiry : a citizen of New York, 121 

CHAPTER XXVI. 
CURE OF INFIDELITY, 123 

CHAPTER XXVII. 
A remedy proposed : honest and thorough investigation, . . . 125 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 
An example : a young man in Kentucky, 128 

CHAPTER XXIX. 
A second example : a gentleman of the bar, 135 

CHAPTER XXX. 
Aversion to commentaries : we may avail ourselves of the facts they 
record; predictions of Rome, .138 

CHAPTER XXXI. 
Case of an infidel who began to read : a merchant of Tennessee, 151 

CHAPTER XXXII. 
Use of commentaries : prophecy of the locusts, 157 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 
Value of historical knowledge : a merchant of Kentucky ; the image 
in Nebuchadnezzar's dream ; a history of the world, . . ' 160 

CHAPTER XXXIV. 
The subject continued: the stone cut out without hands, . . 170 

CHAPTER XXXV. 
An example : an educated young gentleman, 177 



8 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XXXYI. 
"Works on the evidences of Christianity recommended, . . . 179 

CHAPTER XXXVII. 
Testimony resisted : concluding remarks on the remedy proposed ; a 
wealthy agriculturist of the West, 182 

CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
A further remedy : the all-powerful ; evidence of experience, . 188 

CHAPTER XXXIX. 
Illustrations : a man of middle age, 192 

CHAPTER XL. 
Illustrations : a professor of religion, 196 

CHAPTER XLI. 
Illustrations : family worship, 198 

CHAPTER XLII. 
Illustrations : divine influence ; power of prayer, 202 

CHAPTER XLIII. 
The remedy denied to none, 206 

CHAPTER XLIV. 
Atheism, 214 

CHAPTER XLV. 
The subject continued : the doctrine of chance ; the atmosphere ; effects 
of electricity ; heat and cold ; evaporation ; density of the soil, wa- 
ter, air, etc. ; iron ; proofs of design ; the Andes ; the Nile ; Green- 
land ; the solar system; the moon; questions; inquiries answered; 
farewell, 216 

CHAPTER XLVI. 
THE AUTHOR'S UNBELIEF AND MEANS OE RESCUE: mode 
of descent, 251 

CHAPTER XLVII. 
False statements : glass, 254 

CHAPTER XLVIII. 
False* statements : eunuchs, 256 



CONTENTS. * 9 

CHAPTER XLIX. 
Seeming truth, but actual falsehood, 259 

CHAPTER L. 
The subject continued, 263 

CHAPTER LI. 
The subject continued : sneers of infidels, 265 

CHAPTER LII. 
Examples of apparent truth but actual falsehood in infidels ; Yolney's 
Ruins, 270 

CHAPTER LIII. 
Further examples : claims of various religions, 278 

CHAPTER LIY. 
The subject continued : counterfeits, 2S3 

CHAPTER LY. 

Further discoveries : a New Englander in Illinois : a few signs in 
religion, 287 

CHAPTER LYI. 

Further inquiry: the Age of Reason; Scott's Commentary; further 
investigation, 292 

CHAPTER LYII. 

The influence of religious belief at the time of death : observations 
on man's departure, 299 

CHAPTER LYIII. 
The dying compared with those who think themselves dying, . 305 

CHAPTER LIX. 
The subject continued : a revolutionary officer, 308 

CHAPTER LX. 
The subject continued : dying fancies, 311 

CHAPTER LXI. 
Disposition of unbelievers to credit accusations against Christians , 
prejudices against the Jews; character of the Mosaic law, . 314 
1# 



l(f CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER LXII. 

Influence of an early acquaintance with the Bible : what induced the 
people to receive the law of Moses ; fidelity and humility of the 
writers, 327 

CHAPTER LXIII. 
Commemorative institutions : fourth of July, 339 

CHAPTER LXIV. 
Evidence of prophecy : fifty-third of Isaiah, 344 

CHAPTER LXV. 
Evidence of prophecy : Daniel's seventy weeks, .... 349 

CHAPTER LXVI. 
Evidence of prophecy : Daniel's four beasts ; an outline of history, 356 

CHAPTER LXVII. 
Prevalent ignorance of the Bible: examples; predictions of Egypt 
and Syria, 377 

CHAPTER LXYIII. 

The last resort : appeal to reason ; the goodness of G-od ; doctrines 
inquired after, 384 

CHAPTER LXIX. 
The last resort : testimony of enemies, 389 

CHAPTER LXX. 

Concluding summary, 391 

Brief sketch of the author's life, 395 



PREFACE. 



The following work is not a compilation of the evidences of 
Christianity. It was written with the hope of exciting those 
who need such research, to read many authors on that subject. 
A book which does not contain a summary of arguments against 
infidelity, may provoke an appetite to read volumes where those 
arguments are found. The evidences of Christianity are not 
fully contained in any half-score of volumes now existing. 

The most of those who have written, have aimed at nothing 
more than an abridgment of this subject, because of its unusual 
extent. We may present reasons for investigation, and we may 
persuade others to read, in a shorter space than that which is 
required to contain a full array of facts in support of revelation. 
The following pages were written with the design of urging the 
multitude to become informed concerning the book of books, the 
Bible. The call for such an attempt — the necessity for it at the 
present time — we think fairly inferrible from the following facts. 

First fact. It is true, that in almost every congregation 
there are some more or less imbued with infidelity, who do not 
avow it. They are not confirmed sceptics; but Satan's grand 
effort to prevent their commencing the work of repentance, or 
seeking the pardon of sin, is made by suggesting unbelieving 
doubts. The minister who has been long hoping and looking 
with unceasing anxiety for their conversion to God, never was 
thus harassed himself, and does not dream of their real condition. 
Again, there are countless thousands of the youthful and the 
uninformed, who are thus kept inactive. Temptations of unbe- 
lief cripple or prevent their exertions. Books on this subject are 
found, for the most part, only in ministers' libraries, and they 
are scarce there \ and, moreover, those found there are not cal- 
culated altogether to fit the cases we are now noticing. Those 
authors aim at cavils the most plausible only, and strike at infi- 
del objections most worthy of answer; whereas the youth thus 
injured are very often influenced by arguments 'puerile in the 
extreme, and so feeble that the better informed would never be- 
lieve they could be used. 



12 PREFACE. 

Second fact. The adversary of souls would not have young 
professors and possessors of religion grow in grace. To prevent 
it, he injects into their minds cold, unbelieving cavils, which 
embarrass and retard their march. They read on the subject 
authors that are powerful and unanswerable in the truths they 
present ; but they have no effect on the young inquirers, for they 
are not sufficiently simplified and extended. They are invincible 
in the view of those who are familiar with chronology and his- 
tory, but they suit the educated alone. It has been long true 
with the author of the following pages, that after trying to speak 
on the subject, he has been addressed by young persons, who 
have told him that they rejoiced he had noticed a certain infidel 
quibble — that it had long harassed them — that they knew it was 
weak and puerile, but had still been annoyed without having 
heard the proper answer given. 

Third fact. Infidelity is now growing and spreading to an 
extent the blindness of the church does not suspect : pocket vol- 
umes of false statements, infidel manuals, painted perversions 
of history, etc., are spreading profusely; while opposite publica- 
tions are growing more rare. 

There are many thousands more in our land now growing 
up in the darkest unbelief, than is known or suspected by any 
except those who once themselves fought in that division of 
Satan's army. 

Fourth fact. Those who read on this subject in the church 
are few, and Christians are, to a great extent, but poorly quali- 
fied to instruct, or to answer the objections of sceptics against 
their holy religion. 

It has a bad influence on the youthful spectator who notices 
a leader in society, " a grey-headed professor," unable to answer 
the cavil of an uninformed mocker. It has a bad influence on a 
youthful inquirer, who applies for assistance against some soph- 
ism of infidelity to one of God's people, and does not receive it. 

And more. Is not the age of infidelity approaching, along 
with the time of terrible judgments ? 

In a great part of Catholic Europe, are not large masses of 
the population almost total atheists 7 

In Great Britain, do not multitudes of the people openly 
renounce God's holy volume? 

Is not our own nation walking down the same track ? 



THE 



CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY, 



CHAPTER I. 

CAUSE OP INFIDELITY. 

Infidelity is produced by two causes, acting con- 
jointly. The primary, or more remote cause, is man's 
depravity ; the second, or approximate cause, is man's 
want of knowledge. As it regards the first or origi- 
nal cause, man's wicked nature, we can readily see 
how it would bend his belief towards the side of false- 
hood. It must incline him to reject the sacred vol- 
ume, which enjoins every thing that is righteous, self- 
denying, pure, and holy. Again, we can easily under- 
stand how this first cause of unbelief, man's sinful- 
ness, must tend towards the production of the second 
cause, his lack of information. It retards his labors 
in searching after truth ; it aids in continuing his 
want of knowledge ; it prevents his activity in search 
after facts which sustain the truth. As it regards 
the secondary, or proximate cause, want of know- 
ledge, it sounds strange to speak of the ignorance of 
the learned. This seeming contradiction will be fully 
explained after a time. For the present, we must 
begin with the original cause, man's depravity. 



14 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 



CHAPTER II. 

MAN A FALLEN BEING-. 

The Bible is not true, if man is not prone to evil. 
The holy page has two modes of expression in hold- 
ing up the fact of man's depravity. The first is his 
hatred towards God ; the second is his love for false- 
hood. Let us look at each of these assertions. 

1. The carnal mind is enmity against God. 

This seems to the unconverted man as though it 
must be false. He is not conscious of any enmity 
against God. He thinks usually that he loves his 
Creator. Of course, if we talk of his hatred, we do 
not gain his assent. The reason it seems to him that 
he loves where he realty hates, is simply this : he 
does not hate that which he calls God. He well 
approves the character which he himself has given to 
the Creator ; but this character always differs in one 
or more traits from that which is drawn of God in 
the Bible. It always resembles, more or less, the 
character of the individual who has drawn it. A 
part of the character accords with the sacred page ; 
but a portion of it, more or less, belongs to the man 
who draws it ; of course he does not hate it. This 
has been true in every age ; and is now a fact, wher- 
ever men are living. 

Examples. Could you have asked the ancient 
Scandinavian, as he stood before you with a purse in 
one hand and a spear in the other, " Do you love 



MAN A FALLEN BEING-. 15 

God ?" he would have answered you in the affirma- 
tive. Then had you inquired, "Who is God?" he 
would have replied, " Thor, the god of battles and 
of plunder." The warrior loved such a deity — a 
part of the character belonged to the barbarian. Om- 
nipotence and other traits were correct, and were 
received from true tradition ; but holiness and purity 
the man did not love, and therefore did not receive 
into his creed as belonging to heaven. Could you 
have asked the Greek, at Athens, two thousand years 
ago, if he loved God, he would have replied, Yes. 
"Who is God?' 3 Answer, "Bacchus, Venus, or 
Mars." A deity of wine, or revelry, or sensuality, or 
war, he did not hate ; but if you had placed before 
him the full character of the God of the Bible, as the 
apostles did, he would have turned away in anger. 
Go, now, and converse with the enfeebled Asiatic con- • 
cerning his enmity to God, and he wiR look aston- 
ished at your assertion. He is willing to give up his 
life in the service of his god. But ask after this 
deity, and he will name one of lust, cruelty, and pol- 
lution ; one resembling, to a great extent, the man 
who stands before you. If you claim his notice to 
the God who loves justice and humility, purity and 
peace, he cannot bear to hear you. Just so it is in 
the land of Bibles and of light, so it is in England or 
America. Go to that Universalist, and ask him if he 
hates God. He is indignant at the question. He 
thinks he loves his kind Creator ardently; he thinks 
he never did hate God. And it is true that he does 
love a god whose character resembles that of the 
man before you, in some prominent traits. But 



16 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

place before him the God of the Bible — one who will 
say, Depart, to the wicked ; one who will not take 
pollution and the rejecters of mercy into heaven ; one 
who will see the smoke of their torment ascend up 
for ever and ever ; and the Universalist will tell you 
earnestly that he hates such a God as that. Just so 
it is with the Deist. He gives to God a character 
which he thinks rational ; he loves that character ; 
it resembles, in some main points, the man who 
frames it. He cannot think that " the carnal mind 
is enmity against God," for he esteems God a being 
who has done, and will do very much, in accordance 
with a plan which he himself esteems rational and 
proper. 

It is true, we cannot exhibit the case of deists, 
as to what they love or hate, as plainly as the case 
of others, because there is such an unending variety 
in their creed. Go to one hundred deists, and you 
will rarely find two of them believing alike. They 
all agree in rejecting the Bible; but on many very 
important considerations — whether God will or will 
not punish the wicked — whether the soul goes out, 
or certainly lives on after death — whether the world 
is to meet ruin, or continue for ever — if the wicked 
are to be chastised, what sins are most danger- 
ous — they have no sameness in their plans. Many 
deists, on questions of breathless interest, will refuse 
to give you any answer : they will tell you they do 
not know ; they have no belief on the point, however 
interesting. , At other times, you will find them main- 
taining that man's reason was given him as a lamp 
to enlighten, and as a guide to direct him in these 



MAN A FALLEN BEING. 17 

matters. But ask them what kind of conduct here 
will most add to, or detract from happiness here- 
after, or what kind of life we may certainly look 
for in the next existence, and no two of them will 
give you the same replies to these inquiries. The 
reason of a thousand of them seems to have led in as 
many different directions. That Christian denomi- 
nations should differ, appears to them exceedingly 
absurd and reproachful ; but that reason, which they 
say Grod has given as our only teacher, should give 
either no opinions, or very different opinions among 
their own number, does not call forth a bitter remark. 
If the Bible is disclaimed, thus far they all agree ; 
further than this they do not ask after agreement, or 
regret it should there be a thousand different creeds. 
A God according to the Bible, they do not love ; one 
conformed to their own vague ideas, they do not 
hate. 

2. Man's love of falsehood. 

" Men have loved darkness rather than light." 
In this assertion, light stands for truth ; and the 
word darkness means falsehood. It does not seem to 
any one that he prefers falsehood to truth. The 
most prejudiced man thinks himself impartial. It is 
so on any subject. The most vehement politician 
thinks himself unbiassed in his judgment ; the most 
deadly enemy, in speaking of the one he hates, will 
tell you that his views are not the offspring of pas- 
sion, yet he certainly would believe evil of his neigh- 
bor more readily than good, even when this good is 
true. "We might then very certainly expect, that 
the man who wishes to live for ever, to whom annu 



18 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

hilation has no pleasing look, and who even wishes 
strongly to believe the Bible, would be far from feel- 
ing, or believing, that on this subject he would 
cherish darkness rather than light. Nevertheless it 
is true. Although not in a situation as deplorable as 
the man who gnashes his teeth on religion, still it is 
true, that one small cunningly devised falsehood will 
influence him further than one hundred plain and 
forcible arguments in favor of revelation. A man 
may stand on the side of a precipitous mountain, 
and long for the top, yet the impetus of an ounce 
will push him further down than many times that 
force will cast him up. One who desires the valley 
below, can go there without a struggle. The man 
who has sinned may desire the summit of truth, but 
he stands on the declivity of a sinful nature. Every 
transgression or sensual indulgence has added to the 
darkness of his soul without his knowing it. Some 
examples of this must be given in the following 
chapter, to make the fact easily understood. 



FALSEHOOD READILY RECEIVED. 19 



CHAPTER III. 

A TRIFLING- FALSEHOOD INFLUENCES HUMAN BELIEF 
AGAINST THE BIBLE MORE THAN GIGANTIC TRUTH IN 
FAYOR OF IT. 

Example 1. An English traveller, Brydone, wrote 
and published a description of mount Etna. He 
describes her craters and her extended slope, covered 
occasionally for twenty miles or more, along the side 
of the mountain, with vines, villages, and luxuriance. 
These are sometimes destroyed by the river of melted 
lava which issues from the mountain above, many feet 
deep, and a mile — perhaps more, sometimes less — 
in width, bearing all before it, until it reaches the 
sea and drives back its boiling waves. After this 
burning stream has cooled, there is seen, instead of 
blooming gardens, a naked, dreary, metallic rock. 
Sometimes many eruptions occur in the course of a 
year, breaking out at different parts of the moun- 
tain, and sometimes none for half a century. The 
traveller found a stream of lava congealed on the side 
of the mountain, which attracted his notice more 
than others. He thought it must have been thrown 
out by an eruption, which was mentioned by perhaps 
Polybius, as occurring nearly seventeen hundred years 
since. There was no soil on it. It was as naked as 
when first arrested there. The particles of dust float- 
ing through the air had not fallen there, so as to fur- 
nish hold for vegetation, and these vegetables had not 



20 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

grown and decayed again and again, thus adding to 
the depth of the soil. Such a work had not even 
commenced. He tells us that on some part of that 
mountain, near the foot, if you will sink a pit, you 
must pass through seven different strata of lava, with 
two feet of soil between them. Upon the supposition 
that two thousand years are requisite for the increase 
of earth just named, he asks how seven different 
layers could be formed in less than fourteen thousand 
years. The chronology of Moses makes the world 
not half as old. The Englishman was jocular at this 
discovery, and his admirers were delighted at what 
seemed to them a confutation of the book of heaven. 
How many thousands through Europe renounced their 
belief of revelation with this discovery for their prop, 
the author of this treatise is unable even to conjec- 
ture. It seems that many parts of Europe almost 
rang at the news of the analogical theory. True, 
the traveller only conjectured that he had found the 
lava mentioned by the ancient writer ; but no mat- 
ter, supposition only was strong enough to rivet their 
unbelief. The author has conversed with those in 
America, and on her western plains, who would de- 
clare they believed not a word of the Bible, because 
there was no soil on a stratum of lava, which, in all 
probability, had been there long. 

Another learned Englishman, an admirer of the 
books of Moses, wrote to those who seemed to joy so 
greatly in their new system. He told them, that 
inasmuch as they seamed fond of arguing from anal- 
ogies, he would give them an additional one. He 
reminded them that the cities of Herculaneum and 



FALSEHOOD EEADILY RECEIVED. 21 

Pompeii were buried by the eruption in which the 
elder Pliny lost his life, near seventeen hundred years 
since. Those cities have lately been discovered ; and 
in digging down to search their streets, six different 
strata of lava are passed through, with two feet of 
earth between them. And the famous "Watson tells 
them, that if six different soils near Vesuvius could 
be formed in seventeen hundred years, perhaps seven 
might be made elsewhere in five thousand years. 

Might we not suppose, that those who had re- 
nounced their belief of Christianity, after reading 
some conjectures concerning Etna, would have re- 
sumed their faith as soon as these Vesuvian facts 
were placed before them? No, it was not so. It 
was easy to descend, but they never reascended. 
Men love darkness rather than light. Thousands 
who snatched at the objection with joyful avidity 
never read the confutation. They never inquired for 
an answer. Those who read were afterwards silent, 
but remain unaltered. A lawyer who stood so high 
with his fellow-citizens, for worth and intelligence, 
that he filled many offices of trust, had his credence 
of the sacred page shaken by reading the imaginary 
system built on the surface of Etna's lava streams. 
He took the book to a friend, to show him what rea- 
son we have for casting off our reverence for the 
Bible. This friend turned over a few pages of the 
book, where this same traveller, after telling how 
many eruptions sometimes happen in the course of a 
month, goes on to narrate the following history: 

"Our landlord at Nicolasi," he says, " gave us 
an account of the singular fate of the beautiful coun- 



22 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

try near Hybla, at no great distance from hence. 
It was so celebrated for its fertility, and particularly 
for its honey, that it was called Mel Passi, the Honey 
Land, till it was overwhelmed by the lava of Etna ; 
and having then become totally barren, by a kind of 
pun its name was changed to Mai Passi, the Mean 
Land. In a second eruption, by a shower of ashes from 
the mountain, it soon reassumed its ancient beauty 
and fertility, and for many years was called Bel 
Passi, the Beautiful Land. Last of all, in the unfor- 
tunate era of 1669, it was again laid under an ocean 
of fire, and reduced to the most wretched sterility, 
since which time it is known again by its second 
appellation of Mai Passi." 

The lawyer was asked if his difficulties were in 
any way obviated by this rapidity of change from 
soil to nakedness, and from nudity to soil again, 
narrated by the same original discoverer of the whole 
theory. He answered in the negative, and continued 
obstinately to cast away the book of Grod. Thou- 
sands of cases happen continually, where the indi- 
vidual is as readily and as speedily turned into the 
path of infidelity, and when once there, continues to 
trace it with invincible pertinacity. Men, without 
knowing it, love darkness rather than light. 

Example 2. When some travellers in Asia wrote 
back that the Chinese record made the world many 
thousand years older than the Mosaic history does, 
how it rejoiced a host of listeners. Oh, how they 
clapped their hands ! We thought, said they, that 
the Bible was a fabrication, unworthy of belief. If 
any wrote, or said to those* who were thus becoming 



FALSEHOOD READILY RECEIVED. 23 

scoffers at revelation, " Do not be too hasty in your 
conclusions : how can you tell but that national 
vanity may have had some share in exciting those 
who speak of their celestial empire, to claim a 
spurious antiquity?" they turned away, or closed 
their ears with satisfied confidence. They seemed to 
wish for no further information. After a time, some 
additional items were published from Chinese history, 
such as the following : They tell the name of their 
first king, which would sound in the ear of some as 
a corruption of the word Noah. The time they assign 
for his reign corresponds with the age of Noah. They 
speak of this king as being without father ; of his 
mother being encircled with the rainbow ; of his pre- 
serving seven clean animals to sacrifice to the great 
Spirit ; that in his day the sky fell on the earth and 
destroyed the race of men, etc. "When we remember 
that the waters of the sky did this in the days of Noah ; 
that Noah was the first of the postdiluvian race, and 
thus without father ; that the rainbow is interest- 
ingly connected with his history; that he did take 
into the ark clean animals by sevens, part of which 
were offered in sacrifice — we begin to discover that 
the Chinese account is nothing more nor less than a 
blotted copy of the truth. See Stackhouse's History 
of the Bible. 

"We gather from Moses, that between the creation 
and the deluge there were ten generations of men, 
surpassing us greatly in longevity. It would be no 
tortured inference to suppose them vastly our superi- 
ors, both in strength and stature. This kind of men, 
the heathen in ages past were in the habit of calling 



24 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

gods, after their death. The Chinese account speaks 
of ten dynasties of superior beings, who ruled in 
their country a thousand years each, before the sky 
fell on the earth. It is not hard to see that this is 
only a different and a singular manner of relating the 
same facts. But why did — and do now — many of 
the seemingly learned choose to suppose that each 
father ended his race before the son began to live ? 
It was for the purpose of stretching out the time, 
between the deluge and the creation, to ten thousand 
years. Moses informs us that each of these ten gen- 
erations did extend near a thousand years ; but he 
lets us know that a son and his father walked much 
of their earthly race together. The journey of each 
was long, but it was a simultaneous travel. For 
the purpose, if possible, of extending the earth's 
chronology beyond the dates of revelation, multitudes 
have taken partial extracts from hearsay records ; 
and then, to prevent these fragments from agreeing 
with, or upholding the history they hate, have twisted 
them with labor and ingenuity — failing even then to 
construct a passable cavil against the truth. What 
is the reason of this strange hungering and thirsting 
after mean falsehood, rather than the winders of glo- 
rious truth ? It is because men love darkness rather 
than light. Those who had cast away all reverence 
for holy writ, as soon as some one said in their hear- 
ing that the Chinese record contradicted Moses, never 
seemed to inquire further. They asked not after any 
additional account ; or if they were shown that all 
these heathen traditions were simply the truth, pre- 
served in a dress more or less awkward, they were 



Falsehood readily received. 25 

silent ; but they did not return to the place where 
they once stood. They continued scoffers at Chris- 
tianity. 

The author has been in the habit of conversing 
with unbelievers whenever he could obtain the privi- 
lege, during the last eighteen years. Having once 
been of their number, he has since felt for them a 
kindly solicitude, as he hopes, moving him, at a pru- 
dent opportunity, to speak of heavenly things, although 
at times even at the risk of their displeasure. He has 
found that certain items of history or tradition, such 
as might seem to militate against holy writ, they 
receive readily, and remember long. Out of the ten 
thousand facts of a different description, they treas- 
ure none. They seem either not to hear, or they 
understand slowly, or forget very soon. We have 
been naming some of the kind which secure their 
attention and their recollection. We will now notice 
a few out of the mass of items, such as they either 
do not learn or do not hold. 



Cause and Cure. 



26 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 



CHAPTER IV. 

FACTS SUCH AS UNBELIEVERS DO NOT LEARN. 

Under this head it matters not where we begin. 
There is no necessity that we should quit the record 
already before us. If you will go to that opposer of 
Christianity who appeals loudly to the part of Chi- 
nese chronology already discussed, and ask him a few 
questions, you will find that part of Asiatic history 
with which he is utterly unacquainted. Ask him 
what he thinks, when the Chinese history speaks of 
Yao, their king, declaring that in his reign the sun 
stood so long above the horizon that it was feared the 
world would have been set on fire ; and fixes the reign 
of Yao at a given date, which corresponds with the 
age of Joshua the son of Nan. See Stackhouse. 
You will find, in nine cases out of ten, the objector 
knows nothing of that part of the Chinese record. 
Out of the countless items of this character, which, 
if compiled, would fill so many cumbrous volumes, 
he has treasured scarcely one : his taste has not 
craved them with avidity, or he remembers not. We 
are not now speaking merely of the unlettered and 
the feeble-minded. This is true of the senator in 
legislative halls; of the minister plenipotentiary to 
foreign courts ; of the man whose information seems 
to extend almost everywhere. Of the Bible, and of 
ancient literature connected with the Bible, he is 



FACTS NOT LEARNED. 27 

uninformed : the cause is his appetite for darkness 
rather than light. The Latin poet Ovid amuses the 
school-boy greatly, in his fanciful narrative of Phae- 
ton's chariot. This heathen author tells us, that a 
day was once lost, and that the earth was in great 
danger from the intense heat of an unusual sun. It 
is true, that in attempting to account for this inci- 
dent of peril and of wonder, the writer, as was his 
custom at all times, consulted only his imagination, 
and clothed it all with an active fancy. But our 
notice is somewhat attracted, when we find him men- 
tion Phaeton — who was a Canaanitish prince — and 
learn that the fable originated with the Phoenicians, 
the same people whom Joshua fought. If you ask 
an unbeliever of these incidents, or of the common 
tradition with early nations that a day was lost 
about the time when the volume of truth informs us 
that the sun hasted not to go down for the space of a 
whole day, you will find that he had never thought 
on these points : they are not of the character which 
he is inclined to notice. 

Let not the young reader suppose for one mo- 
ment, that if the many octavo volumes which might 
be made, were really filled by the compilation of such 
items and placed in his hands, this would constitute 
the evidence of Christianity. Far from it. These 
books would scarcely form an introduction to that 
entire subject. Such corroborative history or tra- 
ditional fragments are mentioned here, because they 
serve to exhibit the fact, that man is inclined to the 
side of error without knowing it, in matters of relig- 
ion. The way in which things have been and are 



28 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

received, exhibits our disposition unequivocally; and 
it is so important that we know plainly, whether 
men by nature do or do not turn away from holy 
light, that we will pursue this branch of the subject 
a little further. The cases to be cited are merely 
referred to as examples, out of a multitude almost 
endless, which any one may notice who is much in 
the habit of exchanging sentiments with his fellow- 
men. 



TRUTH SLOWLY RECEIVED. 29 



CHAPTER V. 

MEN RECEIVE TRUTH SLOWLY, BUT ERROR PROMPTLY. 

The author once conversed with an able states- 
man, and in the confidence of a private and social 
interview, inquired after the main prop of his unbe- 
lief. He answered that he had read a statement in 
a respectable print, which seemed to him strong 
indeed against the common faith. It was, that at a 
given spot in Europe, bones had been found under a 
rock six hundred feet in depth. He said the Mosaic 
account allowed the world a youthful date ; but that 
to him it was utterly incredible that a sheet of rock 
could be formed and grow above these bones, six 
hundred feet thick, within the space of five thou- 
sand years. After a class of facts connected with 
such subterranean discoveries, he did not seem to 
have inquired. It is a fact, that God's record speaks 
of the fountains of the great deep having been broken 
up. It is a fact, that if those waters were ever called 
to the surface, so as to cover our highest mountains, 
they retired again, for they are not there now. It is 
a fact, that the billows of a sinking ocean would be 
strong enough to carry bones, or more massive bodies, 
under the largest rocks, and into the deepest caverns 
of the earth ; and the turmoil of the mighty deep 
could sw 7 eep hills of clay or sand upon that which 
was once exposed. It is as hard to believe that bones 
remained undecayed during the growth of six hundred 



30 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

feet of rock above them, as it is to suppose that a 
rushing stream carried them far along into a rocky- 
cave. If this learned man were asked to account for 
the forests which were found with a hundred feet of 
earth heaped over them, or how it is that all really 
learned chemists and geologists agree that the pres- 
ent surface of the earth is a young surface, he did 
not seem to have thought on such facts. If asked 
concerning extracts from Berosus the Chaldean, 
Nicolaus of Damascus, Manetho the Egyptian, or 
others, what they may have said of the ruins of a 
great ship, in their day remaining in the mountains 
of Armenia, he did not appear to have read, or to 
have noticed points of this nature. Whether any 
ancient author mentioned the remains of this vessel 
as covered with pitch, which the natives used as a 
charm against disease, stating that a man once landed 
there when the world was covered with water — w T hy 
a village at the foot of mount Ararat should always 
have borne a name which signifies the city of the 
descent — or of a thousand incidents of this nature, he 
seemed never to have inquired. He knew nothing of 
historic fragments of this kind; but that bones had 
been found deep under a rock, and that therefore the 
Bible was not to be obeyed, he seemed to conclude 
readily, and to remain confident. 

That men love darkness rather than light, will be 
exhibited in another form, and by a different process, 
in the following chapters. 



SCOFFERS SHALL COME. 31 



CHAPTER VI. 

SCOFFERS SHALL COME. 

"Knowing this, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, saying, 
Where is the promise of his coming?" 2 Pet. 3 : 3-5. 

In the preceding chapters, some objections often 
urged against revelation have been noticed. They 
are certainly characterized by imbecility. It is more 
than probable that the youthful reader is ready to 
exclaim, " These are not my objections : my difficul- 
ties are of another kind ; and remain unanswered in 
all the productions I have ever read in favor of Chris- 
tianity." And they are likely to remain unanswered, 
unless some author should be able to write a book as 
extensive as all the volumes contained in a well-filled 
library. There are many faces belonging to the in- 
habitants of earth now alive, but- no two of them are 
just the same. So it is with the unending difficul- 
ties and objections in the minds of those who lean 
towards error, rather than the light of the sacred 
volume. We might remind any one reader that we 
do not know what his particular objections are, and 
therefore cannot answer them, unless we could take 
up the millions of cavils on the surface of the ocean of 
darkness. If your difficulties could be known, they 
would resemble such as have been noticed and met 
by many authors. Some additional examples will be 
given, as we attempt fairly to hold up to view the 
general principle, or the cause of unbelief, namely, 



32 CAUSE AND CURE ©F INFIDELITY. 

wilful ignorance. But before we proceed, it will be 
necessary to guard by preliminaries against mistake. 
Many are ready to suppose that the wilfully 
ignorant have no desire for knowledge. This is a 
misunderstanding, against which we should be well 
guarded. The boy at college who has passed off his 
weeks of study in idleness and frivolous amusement, 
as the day of public examination approaches has a 
very strong desire to know as much as his classmates. 
Still, he is justly censured as wilfully ignorant. The 
careless, loitering, and work-hating apprentice may 
have a desire for knowledge and skill in the business 
of his employer, yet his deficiencies are punished as 
wilful ignorance. Many unbelievers desire knowledge 
on the great subject, but they never undergo the labor 
of research. "We suppose that of all the scoffers who 
were to come in the last days, and who were to be 
wilfully ignorant, there is scarcely one but would 
be willing to receive historic knowledge at least, pro- 
vided an angel could just grasp it in his hand, and 
throw it into his brain, without any exertion on his 
part. But the toil of research he never encounters. 
He may snatch at some plausible objection to truth, 
as he hears it repeated ; but to impartial investigation 
he is an utter stranger. As for those who think they 
have investigated very laboriously, but who have not 
investigated at all, we will notice them in consider- 
ing another part of this subject. The millions of 
scoffers who have come, and who now live, are igno- 
rant of Bible facts and Bible language. The profound 
and the unlettered, the wealthy and the indigent, 
the talented and the stupid, are ignorant of Bible 



SCOFFERS SHALL COME. 33 

facts and Bible language. To some, this may sound 
strange, but it is not hard to prove. The matter may 
be easily tested. The scoffers live noiv, and you 
may approach and converse with them. During a 
ten-year's search, you are not likely to find one excep- 
tion to the general statement. There was one who 
tried this for eighteen years, to see if he could meet 
with any one who cast away the Bible, and who was 
at the same time acquainted with its contents, and 
with the ancient literature connected with the Bible. 
He found some who at first declared themselves 
acquainted with the subject, but who really were not. 
After asking them, in an affectionate manner, a few 
questions, they generally confessed that their know- 
ledge did not extend far. But this fact can be seen 
more clearly while looking at examples of wilful 
ignorance. 



2* 



34 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 



CHAPTER VII. 

SCOFFERS ARE UNACQUAINTED WITH THE FACTS OF THE 
BIBLE. 

Examples. Those who have " come scoffing" in 
the present age, are utterly unacquainted with Bible 
facts and Bible language. We first notice Bible facts. 
In exhibiting such cases, we are like the man who 
stands by an immense magazine of wheat. He may 
take a handful and hold it out to view; but he can- 
not exhibit each grain in the mass to the eye of any 
purchaser. It w T ould be a task endless and painful. 

Item 1. In the second and third chapters of Rev- 
elation may be found the letters written by St. John, 
at the direction of Jesus Christ, to seven churches 
situated in that part of the world which we call Asia 
Minor. To each church was sent a different message, 
a different threatening, or a different promise. These 
prophetic declarations were long in fulfilling, but 
have all come to pass. It is common with the totally 
uninformed in chronology to say, when prophecy is 
named, " Perhaps this was written after the event 
came to pass." For the sake of such, it is here 
remarked, that the event about to be noticed occurred 
more than nine centuries after the book of Revela- 
tion was much written against by haters of the gos- 
pel, and defended by lovers of the truth. Inasmuch 
as a book is written before its contents are greatly 
controverted, even the most unlettered will be able to 



BIBLE FACTS NOT EXAMINED. 35 

understand dates in this case ; and will be satisfied, 
after nine hundred years of discussion, that the book 
was in existence. For the sake of those who may- 
fear Christian partiality, when we come to speak of 
the fulfilment of these seven messages, we will quote 
mostly from infidel authority. They will scarcely 
suspect an undue favor towards the sacred volume, in 
those who have hated its name, written against its 
authority, and mocked at its doctrines. To the church 
of Ephcsus the Redeemer ordered John to write, " Re- 
member, therefore, from whence thou art fallen, and 
repent, and do the first works; or else I will come 
unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick 
out of its place, except thou repent." 

The author of the Decline and Fall of the Roman 
Empire, Gribbon, one of the most accomplished, unre- 
lenting haters of the Bible, that ever spent half a 
lifetime in writing against it, says, " In the loss of 
Ephesus, the Christians deplored the fall of the first 
angel, and the extinction of the first candlestick of the 
Revelation." He tells us this was accomplished by 
the Ottomans, A. D. 1312. In Ephesus, at the pres- 
ent day, there are none who even bear the Christian 
name, so completely is the candlestick removed. 

To the angel of the church in Philadelphia, John 
was commanded to write, " Because thou hast kept 
the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from 
the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all 
the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth." 
It was indeed an hour of trial to all the churches, 
when the Mahometan, with his naked sword, gave 
the member choice to receive the Koran for his Bible? 



36 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

and Mahomet for his prophet, or to see his sons and 
daughters go into servitude, his dwelling blaze, and 
to suffer his blood to stain his own hearth. From 
this temptation it was especially improbable that 
Philadelphia would be saved. This we may learn 
from the language of the same unbelieving author, 
who seemed almost startled himself at what he was 
compelled to record. Hear him speak. " Philadel- 
phia alone has been saved, by prophecy — or courage. 
At a distance from the sea, forgotten by the emper- 
ors, encompassed on all sides by the Turks, her val- 
iant citizens defended their religion and freedom 
above fourscore years, and at length made terms 
with the proudest of the Ottomans. Among the 
Greek colonies and churches of Asia, Philadelphia is 
still erect ; a column in a scene of ruins." "We have 
reason to hope that God has had new-born souls there 
in every age. 

To the Laodicean church the Saviour wrote, 
" Because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor 
hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth." It seems to 
us, that words could not be placed on paper express- 
ing a more deep and decisive abhorrence. What are 
the words the infidel historian has chosen ? He says, 
" The circus and three stately theatres at Laodicea 
are now peopled by wolves and foxes" 

The church at Smyrna next claims our notice. In 
the sacred volume we find the Lord repeatedly telling 
his servants, that a day should stand for a year in the 
occurrence then foretold. This may be more fully 
considered when we come to mention the subject of 
prophecy. That the ten years' persecution, during 



BIBLE FACTS NOT EXAMINED, 37 

which the church at Smyrna suffered, under the reign 
of Diocletian, was a cruel and a bloody one, perhaps 
no one has ever questioned, and we need not pause 
here to quote history for its proof. The Lord had, 
long beforehand, commanded an apostle to tell them, 
by letter, " Behold, the devil shall cast some of you 
into prison, that ye may be tried ; and ye shall have 
tribulation ten days. Be thou faithful unto death, 
and I will give thee a crown of life," etc. A minis- 
ter of the gospel once felt a desire, and sought an 
opportunity to converse with a number of rejecters 
of Christianity, who possessed talents and literature. 
Between him and some of these a friendly intimacy 
existed ; some of them were admired by their coun- 
trymen, and known to the nation by their political 
eminence. He felt pressingly solicitous to make 
inquiries such as the following : " Do you never find 
your curiosity at least, somewhat awakened, while 
reading the letters to the seven churches of Asia ? 
Suppose it had been of Philadelphia that the histo- 
rian had said, with truth, ' It is inhabited by wolves 
and foxes ;' or suppose it had been concerning Sardis 
that the Redeemer's promise of salvation from the 
hour of trial was penned ; how triumphantly would 
the event have been noticed by the opposers of holy 
writ. Suppose the Saviour had said of Philadelphia, 
' I will spue thee out of my mouth.' Suppose that 
gospel light had still shone at Ephesus, even faintly, 
showing that the candlestick had not been removed. 
Suppose no marked distress, of ten years' continu- 
ance, had ever prevailed at Smyrna. Or, suppose 
some comforting promise had been recorded concern- 



38 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

ing Laodicea. Vary either the history as it trans- 
pired, or the message which was sent, in any one out 
of a hundred ways ; and what would have been the 
result ?" 

The inquirer found that they did not know par- 
ticularly what the Lord had written to any one of 
those churches. They had either not noticed, or they 
had certainly not remembered what had been the 
precise fate of Ephesus, Sardis, or Laodicea. With 
the long drawn train of Bible facts, as numerous as 
the pages of that singular book, they were entirely 
unacquainted. Let no one suppose that these items 
are here presented as the evidences of Christianity : by 
no means. They do, we believe, possess much inter- 
est, but the foundation is broader than these can 
make it. A few out of the wide multitude are here 
called to view, merely to show the wilful ignorance 
so strangely belonging to those who speak against 
light. 



BIBLE FACTS NOT EXAMINED. 39 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE SUBJECT CONTINUED. 

Item 2. A man who was an able Senator in 
Congress, from a state where talent was not scarce, 
once said to a Christian friend, " I have heard the 
prophecy concerning the destruction of Babylon, 
mentioned as evidence that the writer saw into futu- 
rity. With me it weighs nothing. Any one might 
guess that a proud city would come to ruin ; and the 
common tendency of things to revolution might bring 
it to pass. It requires no inspiration to foretell the 
decay of perishing things." His friend discovered 
that some things he did know and remember with 
readiness, but that of other very many and very ob- 
vious facts he was totally uninformed. He under- 
stood with alacrity, and he was correct in his doc- 
trine, that if the overthrow of Babylon had been all 
that the prophet foretold, that alone would have been 
no certain evidence that his pen was guided by a su- 
perior hand. But on the difference between a pre- 
diction with specifications and one without them, he 
appeared never to have meditated. The difference 
between a prophecy — like the heathen oracles — 
where one naked event is declared without any of the 
particulars, and a circumstantial prediction where 
the items of time or manner are all related, must be 
attentively noticed by us, or our judgment in such 
cases will be vague and infantile. If you foretell the 



40 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

death of an individual, time will accomplish it, 
though you have no prophetic gift ; but if you ven- 
ture to add as many as three uncertain particulars, 
your reputation as a seer is instantly in jeopardy. 
Name the death of the man, and say that it will take 
place by apoplexy, on Thursday of the next week, 
and you are likely to fail in all the particulars ; while 
you are an impostor should you mistake only in one. 
Take a thousand men, and it is not to be expected 
that any one of them will die just at that day, at a 
given hour, and with that disease. How much more 
difficult to sustain your pretensions to prophetic gifts, 
if three more specifications are added. Suppose 
these to be improbable particulars, and how much is 
the difficulty increased ! 

That which distinguishes the prophecies of the 
Bible from all heathen or all pretended predictions of 
every age, is simply that the former have not merely 
three specifications, or six particulars, but often very 
many, and many of these, too, altogether unlikely 
ever to come to pass, in the view and judgment of 
human wisdom. The prophecy named by the emi- 
nent statesman mentioned above, has connected with 
it more than twice six of these items or particulars, 
many of them totally improbable, according to man's 
common expectation of things. Before we notice 
these, or look carefully at the prophecy, we must men- 
tion an evasion which does not belong to the learned 
unbeliever of the present day ; but it is common 
with those who do not read. The better informed 
will excuse us for explaining to the youthful and 
the unlettered that which is already known to oth- 



BIBLE FACTS NOT EXAMINED. 41 

ers. It is concerning an old and common refuge from 
truth, we now write. " The prophecies," say those 
who are afraid to believe, " may have been written 
after the events mentioned transpired." This shall be 
no difficulty between us at the present time, for we 
will present no prediction which did not have all or a 
greater part of its fulfilment many generations after 
the time when unbelievers admit it was in existence. 
If we go according to infidel authority, the young 
sceptic will have no unwillingness to receive the ac- 
count from his own party, and from leaders on his 
side of the question. There are many ways in which 
the date of a prophecy may be fairly proved and es- 
tablished ; but we at present will take the shorter 
course of quoting no prediction which did not come 
to pass many years and centuries after the time fixed 
for its origin by the most noted and learned oppos- 
ers. For example, the great hater of Christianity, 
Porphyry, was perhaps the first who ever used this 
objection. Some prophecies of the Old Testament 
were so plain, and seemed to give him so much dis- 
tress, that he gave it as his opinion that the book of 
prophecy must have been written subsequently to 
their fulfilment. He quoted from the Grreek transla- 
tion, so well known under the name of the Septua- 
gint — the same translation used by the Saviour and 
his apostles ; the same which was made for, and 
formed a part of the Alexandrian library. If you 
allow this no greater age than the time when the 
learned unbeliever wrote against it, this will suffice 
for the present. Porphyry has been dead fifteen 
hundred years. And the prophetic events we are 



42 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

about to state came to pass from three to seven, nine, 
and eleven hundred years after his death. Or again, 
concerning the common Greek version of the Old 
Testament, the famous Gibbon says, scoffingly and 
deridingly, that the Egyptian king gathered it from 
the villages of Judea. But the king of Egypt of 
whom he speaks, lived three hundred years before 
the Saviour was crucified. Then, if you do not fear 
to receive the account from this champion in unbe- 
lief, if you do not fear he was too partial to the Bible, 
the events we are now about to call to view occur- 
red from three to seven, nine, eleven, or twenty-one 
hundred years after the Old Testament was trans- 
lated into Greek. AVe can only say to the young- 
reader with an immortal soul, that if no more could 
be said on this point than even the little we have 
now told you, we think you might doubt the security 
of your refuge. But if you are determined to seek 
a flimsy hiding-place, where even the infidel arrows 
will pierce you, then you must go there, and there 
remain. 

The first prophecy noticed shall be that which was 
cited by the able politician, to show that little was 
proved by its alleged fulfilment, namely, the fall of an- 
cient Babylon. Here the reader is invited to turn to 
different books of the Old Testament, and there note 
how the event was mentioned by different prophets. 
The name of the general who should lead the army — 
one hundred and fifty years before his birth — the 
manner of the assault, the condition and conduct of 
the besieged, where the victors were to find the treas- 
ures, etc., are all declared. But at present it is our 



BIBLE FACTS NOT EXAMINED. 43 

plan to hold up to view only that part of these pre- 
dictions which has come to pass since the Old Testa- 
ment was translated into the Greek language. 

Isaiah 13 : 20-22. " It shall never be inhabited, 
neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to gen- 
eration ; neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there ; 
neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. 
But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their 
houses shall be full of doleful creatures ; and owls 
shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there ; and 
the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate 
houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces," etc. 

1. Let it be noted, that it was very unlikely that 
this particular kind of desolation should happen to 
any city. We should never conjecture concerning 
London or Paris, should these cities come to ruin, 
that they would be deserted by man while lofty pal- 
aces or stately dwellings were there, inviting the 
houseless wanderer at least under their friendly 
shelter. Centuries rolled by after these threatenings 
were written. Babylon received another and another 
overthrow. Still, these did not unpeople her streets. 
After a time, history informs us, Seleucia and Ctesi- 
phon were built ; the luxurious and sensual nobles of 
Babylon must follow their monarch and his court ; 
they left their palaces, and their splendid abodes were 
deserted in a singular and unexampled manner. The 
servants and the dependents of these wealthy sons of 
revelry and authority, followed their lords to gaze at 
or participate in their feasting. Those who lived by 
selling their merchandise to the opulent followed, and 
the streets were in fact abandoned to unbroken silence. 



44 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

2. Must it follow of course that the ferocious beasts 
of the islands shall inhabit dwellings more splendid 
in some respects than any we have ever seen? By- 
no means. This was not the natural result, for still 
enough of the indigent remained to rule the brutal 
creation that have not reason for their guide. But 
continue to watch the progress of events. The Lord 
has spoken, and shall he fail to make it good ? After 
a time a despotic potentate craves a more splendid 
hunting-ground ; he repairs the walls of the ancient 
city and makes it the area of his chase. Their 
houses are then fall of doleful creatures ; owls dwell 
there, and dragons in their pleasant palaces. 

3. But it was not to be expected that these houses 
could stand always, and they did not. It was not to 
be expected that Babylon could continue always the 
hunting-ground of a king, and it did not. Babylon 
had stood on a fertile and extensive plain. "Will not 
the shepherd drive his flock wherever vegetation 
springs to sustain them, if man's dominion does not 
forbid him? Assuredly he will, if Grod has not said 
nay. But when the towering edifices of brick had 
fallen in, the under cellars and vaults afforded such 
dens and lairs for tigers, wolves, lions, and hyenas, 
that travellers inform us it was too hazardous for the 
approach of a shepherd and his flock. 

4. But the Arabians move in bands ; they delight 
to wield the javelin ; they tremble not at the lion's 
growl. The Arab will surely pitch his tent ihere, as 
he traverses all the deserts of the eastern continent. 
And he would have done so in defiance of the most 
ferocious of the forest tribes ; but under the extended 



BIBLE FACTS NOT EXAMINED. 45 

and unparalleled rubbish of that spot denounced of 
heaven, were concealed scorpions, serpents, and rep- 
tiles so numerous, and with fangs so envenomed and 
deadly, that no one could close his eyes in safety un- 
der the shelter of his friendly tent. 

5. But time will obliterate these dens and hiding- 
places ; these heaps will dissolve and this rubbish 
will decay. Babylon was in the midst of a rich 
plain that could not be washed like the hills of Pal- 
estine into nudity and barrenness. Will it not be re- 
peopled ? Who shall venture to say, " It shall never 
be inhabited from generation to generation VI An- 
swer, God. He said so, and so it has been. 

6. But the Bible goes on to say that it should 
be inhabited by the bittern, a water-fowl ; nay, the 
book declares that it should become pools of water. 
When did this happen? Answer, in compara- 
tively modern days. Some singularly spontaneous 
obstruction of the Euphrates caused its overflow- 
ing, and travellers tell us that two-thirds or more of 
Babylon is now "pools of water for the bittern to 
cry in." 

We have not exhibited half the items of history 
foretold concerning Babylon ; but we have noticed 
enough to illustrate the difference between a vague 
prediction and a prophecy whose particulars are mi- 
nutely mentioned. The man of great mind, and in 
other respects extensive information, who spoke 
against this prophecy, had acquainted himself with 
none of these particulars, nor with any of a similar 
character abounding in the book of Grod; he only 
knew enough to make him doubt, to raise difficulties 



46 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

in his mind. Thus far his religious information 
extended and no further. This is unquestionably 
the fact with many of the orators, statesmen, and 
leading characters of the present day. They have 
been pressingly engaged in their worldly pursuits. 
It seemed to them as though they had no time for 
such research. They indeed had but little love for 
this kind of labor ; but of this last truth, perhaps, 
they are unconscious. Yet many, it is to be feared, 
are influenced by them, as was a female of the state 
of Tennessee. Her husband kept a public-house of 
much resort. Her friends were much surprised to 
hear her avow that she had cast away the Bible. 
When asked her reasons, she said that those of the 
brightest minds and highest attainments the land con- 
tained spoke even deridingly of it as they sat at her 
table. She considered them much abler to judge in 
such cases than she was, and refused all further love or 
reverence for the Man of Gethsemane ! We quit for 
a time the history of Babylon, but we have not done 
with it. We must proceed to notice other cities and 
their fate, and then to call up these different cases 
severally, as so many steps by which we ascend to 
the summit of an interesting consideration. 



BIBLE FACTS NOT EXAMINED. 47 

CHAPTER IX. 

THE SUBJECT CONTINUED. 

Item 3. The city of Tyre. If the reader will 
consult the prophets of the Old Testament, he will 
find the overthrow of this city foretold, the manner 
of the siege, the name of the conqueror, the number 
of years before it should resume its former splendor, 
and its second fall. But these things we will not 
dwell upon : we attend to those particulars which be- 
long to more modern times, or which took place as it 
were but yesterday. 

1. When a city subsisting by commerce is over- 
thrown, if the many streams of her lucrative trade 
shall cause a speedy elevation to more than ancient 
magnificence, the mind of calculating shrewdness 
might conjecture, that if spoiled again, the winds of 
traffic might blow wealth and power once more into 
her ports. The ships of Tyre floated over the seas, 
and her second growth almost resembled magic. The 
Lord said she should be destroyed and never built 
again. Two thousand years are past, but the riches 
and splendor of Tyre are no more. 

2. The Lord ordered Ezekiel to say, " I will 
scrape her dust from off her, and make her like the 
top of a rock." In the siege of Tyre by Alexander 
the Great — it having been rebuilt on an island a half 
mile from the shore, and surrounded by a wall one 
hundred and fifty feet in height — " a mound was 



43 CAUSE AND "CfUltE OF INFIDELITY. 

formed from the continent to the island, and the ruins 
of old Tyre afforded ready materials for the purpose. 
The soil and rubbish were gathered and heaped, and 
the mighty conqueror, who afterwards failed in rais- 
ing again any of the ruins of Babylon, cast those of 
Tyre into the sea, and scraped her very dust from off 
her." 

3. It was declared by the prophet, more than 
twenty-three centuries since, " It shall be a place for 
the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea." Should 
the desolation be as complete as that of Babylon, who 
shall carry their nets there to dry them? "The 
whole village of Tyre," said Yolney in his Ruins, 
" contains only fifty or sixty poor families, who live 
obscurely on the produce of their little ground, and a 
trifling fishery ;" and Bruce describes Tyre as " a 
rock whereon fishers dry their nets." 

We ask the reader once more to treasure up these 
facts until we shall have mentioned others, so as at 
last to bring them all into one view. 



BIBLE FACTS NOT EXAMINED. 49 

CHAPTER X. 

THE SUBJECT CONTINUED. 

Item 4. Damascus — " It shall be a ruinous heap." 
Damascus has not been blotted out, so that no one 
dwells there ; it is not a naked rock ; it is not pools 
of water ; it is not peopled by wolves and foxes. 
This is not the way in which Damascus is mentioned 
in the book of books. But it has been ravaged and 
desolated again and again. It was reduced by Alex- 
ander, by the Homans, and especially by the Sara- 
cens in the year 713, who " miserably devastated 
it ;" and by Tamerlane in 1396, who " put its inhab- 
itants to the sword without mercy." It has been 
made "a ruinous heap;" and still exists, "the ex- 
ternal appearance of most of the buildings being very 
mean — of some exceedingly so — while many of them 
are very elegant within." 

For several chapters we have been preparing to 
exhibit the truth that scoffers of the later days are 
unacquainted with Bible facts. We are now almost 
ready to make the application. 

If you will go to any number of judges, legisla- 
tors, physicians, counsellors, etc., who speak against 
the sacred book, and ask them some such, questions 
as we are about to specify, you will be able at once 
to understand the strange assertion, that the learned 
are included in the class of the wilfully ignorant. 

We will here ask the reader some questions, such 

Cause and Cure, 3 



60 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

as he may ask any who now live and who now 
deride the Bible. 

Questions. The Hebrew prophets were ordered 
to utter their denunciations against all the nations 
round about for their wickedness. They spoke of 
their hills, rivers, villages, cities, and governments. 
If these prophets only conjectured or guessed that the 
events they foretold might or would come to pass, 
then may we not ask, with some degree of wonder at 
least, Suppose it had been said of some other city 
besides Babylon, thai it should become pools of water 
and never more inhabited? May not our curiosity 
be somewhat excited when we notice, that of the 
thousand proud and wicked cities around, the prophet 
did not happen to write these things of any, Babylon 
excepted ? And had they been written of any other 
one city, town, or village, that was or has been upon 
the face of the earth, we know of none where their 
truth could be seen. These, and the other particu- 
lars w T e have noticed, came to pass many centuries 
after these books of prophecy were written, according 
to infidel authority, or after unbelievers wrote against 
them. 

May we not inquire, with some degree of won- 
der, Suppose some icriter of the Old Testament had 
happened to conjecture and ivrite concerning Da- 
mascus, Sidon, Jerusalem, Jericho, Nineveh, or 
any city, town, or village, except Tyre, that the 
soil on which it stood should be scraped away, and 
fishermen* s nets rest upon its nakedness, who could 
point to its accomplishment ? On the broad surface 
of the earth, or along the protracted shores of the 



BIBLE FACTS NOT EXAMINED. 51 

ocean, the prophet was surely fortunate to hit upon 
the only spot where these things did happen. Long 
and dreadful calamities were threatened to Jerusa- 
lem ; but suppose it had been said that owls and 
tigers should inhabit pleasant palaces there, how 
many thousands now would clap their hands, rejoic- 
ing that such a conjecture was ever made. Suppose 
some one, two thousand years ago, had ventured to 
guess that the time would come when a shepherd 
would be afraid to drive his flock where Palmyra of 
the desert then stood, or through Athens, Ephesus, or 
Rome ; name any spot you please but one, and where 
would his reputation stand ? 

An admirer of the Bible who once sought, during 
many years, an opportunity to converse on this sub- 
ject with those of cultivated minds, asked questions 
resembling those above oftener than he can name or 
remember. He found that the reason they had not 
thought with some degree of interest on some such 
Bible facts was, they did not know that such facts 
existed. They could not think what (rod had said 
of Persia, Egypt, or Syria, for indeed they did not 
know what he had said, or that any thing was writ- 
ten about almost any nation or city that could be 
mentioned to them. Those of them who had read 
the Bible through, did not know that the things we 
have named were in the Bible. A thousand similar 
facts were equally unknown to them. If the learned 
unbeliever of the present day is thus wanting in the 
ancient literature connected with the Bible, it will 
not be hard to fancy the condition of the uneducated 
scoffer. Thousands who range the streets of our 



52 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

large cities seem to be beyond remedy. Their furi- 
ous hatred towards all that is meek or holy, prevents 
their listening to expostulation ; and their ignorance 
renders them incapable of weighing argument on 
almost any subject. Their confidence in their edifice, 
however, would no doubt be much shaken, were it 
not that they fancy they have substantial support 
in their sameness of belief with the learned and the 
great. 

We were to show that scoffers are wilfully igno- 
rant of Bible language, but we must first devote a 
few more chapters to facts. It is important that we 
should have a fair view of the fact, that men have 
some fondness for darkness, but none for light. This 
can be seen, if we show that men will not inform 
themselves, even where they condemn. It is possible 
that some reader may be in the state of mind in 
which was an old and wealthy merchant, who fancied 
that he had fully investigated the matter. " I have," 
said he, " heard these things spoken of all my life ; I 
have looked through the Bible ; I have thought on 
these things as I rode on my horse, as I lay on my 
bed, as I stood behind my counter, and I cannot be- 
lieve, because I am unable to understand the subject. 
Many things in religion seem to contradict my plain- 
est reason." 

Mark this case. The preceptive doctrines of 
Christianity are plain enough for a child to under- 
stand, and lovely enough to captivate all that is not 
enmity against God. The old man was not attempt- 
ing to obey any of these ; he only had his eye directed 
towards that which might appear difficult to him. So 



BIBLE FACTS NOT EXAMINED. 53 

far as he could see, he was not trying to perform ; but 
on more mysterious points, spoke of an investigation 
which was no investigation. We must illustrate this. 
Suppose there was a ploughman who had some strange 
dislike towards the science of chemistry ; he professes 
to disbelieve the whole of its facts and theories. Sup- 
pose he declares that many doctrines of chemistry 
contradict his plainest common-sense. He takes up 
a receipt for making ink, and avers, that to speak 
of mingling several clear white fluids together, and 
expecting black as the result, contradicts his plainest 
reason. 

Again, he says that chemists speak of mingling 
two cold substances until each shall become hot 
without the addition of a third ; but declares that 
this contradicts all that is rational. He finally adds, 
that he can never attempt to practise that which he 
cannot understand ; that he has read of alkalis, calo- 
ric, affinities, etc., until all appears to him a mass of 
confusion, and a jargon of nonsense. That he has 
thought on these things as he rode on his horse, as he 
lay on his bed, and as he ploughed in the field. And 
to crown all, chemists differ among themselves. 

At all this the philosopher would smile, and tell 
him that in order to practise the most useful part of 
chemistry — making salt, washing clothes, or baking 
bread, etc. — it was not necessary he should under- 
stand all that the Creator knows about it. He would 
tell this doubter that he might easily try the matter, 
take different substances and do as directed, and he 
would soon know the truth of these things experi- 
mentally. Finally, he would tell him, that if he 



54 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

must search into deeper matters, he must investi- 
gate in reality ; that his much talked of research 
had left him ignorant still ; that this ignorance could 
be removed, and that he certainly should not con- 
demn, with a confident air, until it was removed. 

The doctrines of the Bible may be known, and 
their usefulness tested practically. Experimental 
knowledge is the safest and the best in the world. 
But if any are resolved that they will have a differ- 
ent kind of evidence or none, let them see that their 
wilful ignorance is removed before they venture to 
decide for eternity. 



BIBLE FACTS NOT EXAMINED. 55 



CHAPTER XL 

THE GREAT AND THE LEARNED DO NOT ACQUAINT THEM- 
SELVES WITH BIBLE FACTS. 

Item 5. Egypt — All the early history of Egypt, 
so impressively foretold by the prophets, we pass over, 
and come at once down to the particulars that are 
accomplishing at present— to those things which have 
been fulfilling in all recent years, as well as in ancient 
days. We may notice those predictions concerning 
Egypt, which the reader, whether young or old, has 
lived to see fulfilled. 

The words of Ezekiel : "And I will bring again 
the captivity of Egypt, and will cause them to re- 
turn into the land of Pathros ; and they shall be 
there a base (Heb. low) kingdom. It shall be the 
basest of the kingdoms ; neither shall it exalt itself 
any more above the nations ; for I will diminish them, 
that they shall no more rule over the nations. And 
I will make the rivers dry, and sell the land into 
the hand of the wicked ; and I will make the land 
waste, and all that is therein, by the hand of stran- 
gers: I the Lord have spoken it. I will also destroy 
their idols, and I will cause their images to cease out 
of Noph ; and there shall be no more a prince of the 
land of Egypt." Chap. 29, 30. 

We remark, first, it was very unlikely, to human 
apprehension, that Egypt should be the lowest of 
kingdoms always. Of all the nations, it seemed most 



56 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

unlikely that Egypt should be depressed very long, 
because her unparalleled fertility and consequent 
populousness promised a speedy recovery after a 
downfall. Shall that country which was so long, so 
universally, and so justly called the granary of the 
world, have any other than a dense population? 
And, if numerous, shall strength be wanting to re- 
cover her freedom? It was more improbable of 
Egypt than of any other spot of earth, that strangers 
should always rule and waste it, because of its situ- 
ation. The Mediterranean on one side, the Red sea 
on another, impassable deserts on another, promise 
great defence. But the total inundation of the whole 
country by the Nile, during a part of every year — 
which the inhabitants are prepared to meet, while an 
invading army never can be — would surely aid even 
a weak people to defend themselves. But the Lord 
said her exaltation w T as ended, and that her future 
recovery was prohibited. The Babylonians, then the 
Persians, next the Macedonians, the Romans, the 
Saracens, the Mamelukes, and finally the Turks, 
have protracted her subjugation and her servitude 
down to the present day. She has often made the 
attempt, but never succeeded to free herself. She 
has been under and always under, low and always 
low. She has been kept the basest of kingdoms ; 
servile, stupid, treacherous, cruel, and base in char- 
acter. "We know of no part of the earth which has 
not governed itself, or been free some part of the last 
twenty-four hundred years, except that part which, 
from its location, fertility, and internal resources, 
seemed most likely to continue independent all the 



BIBLE FACTS NOT EXAMINED. 57 

time. "We do not know the otherwise considerable 
nation which has been thus debased for half that 
time, but the one seemingly most capable of self- 
defence. 

Secondly, when Ezekiel lived, had we been there 
and about to invent a highly political or historic im- 
probability, could we have thought of a greater one 
than to suppose that the idols and images should 
cease out of Egypt ? What! shall we conjecture this 
of those who were so strangely prone to worship any 
thing but God ? Serpents, unicorns, cattle, reptiles, 
no matter what it was, they kneeled before it. 

It was a strange prediction to speak of causing 
images or idols to cease in a land where continued 
baseness is to prevail ; because we spontaneously 
couple together in our minds ignorance, images, filth, 
idols, and sensuality. 

Images have long ceased there. Their idols have 
long since been destroyed. The Christian — in name 
only — who lives there, and the Turk who rules there, 
equally disdain to kneel before wood or stone, living 
animals, or painted statues. 

Thirdly, it was strikingly probable, from all for- 
mer history, and from all historic analogy, that Egypt 
would, at some time, have a native ruler, even should 
that ruler hold a borrowed or deputed authority. May 
not one of her own sons sit a prince upon that throne, 
although he may be a tributary prince ? May not 
her native lords govern there, no matter how exorbi- 
tant the tribute ? 

There has never been a prince of the land of 
Egypt. Their rulers have been sent to them. Stran- 

3* 



58 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

gers have sent their slaves to be governors of the land 
of Egypt. 

It has not been her own sons who, in the pride of 
self-exaltation, have drained the treasures of Egypt. 
It has always been by the hands of strangers that 
she has been wasted. 

Application. If we inquire of the unbelievers 
who live now — not merely of the uncultivated, but 
of the most noted for talents and professional emi- 
nence — whether they have not been surprised on 
reflecting that these things were said of one nation 
only; and that out of all the nations of the earth, of 
one only they have happened to be true, and that for 
so many generations, we find that they have never 
meditated on such points. Of these and of similar 
facts almost countless in extent, they know nothing, 
and they do not inquire ; yet, either openly or in 
heart, they are scoffers. Men are slow and backward 
to inform themselves of any thing on the side of truth, 
in matters of religion ; but slight and superficial ob- 
jections, weak but plausible theories against the Bible, 
they learn speedily, they understand instantly, and 
they remember always. It is supposed, on good evi- 
dence, that no son of Adam ever was known to forget 
an ingenious and seemingly correct argument against 
Christianity, once heard, so long as he retained his 
mind. 

The conclusion is, that men love darkness rather 
than light. 



BIBLE FACTS NOT EXAMINED. 59 

CHAPTER XII. 

THE SUBJECT CONTINUED. 

We might here cease to point at Bible facts, hop- 
ing that even the few we have noticed might serve 
as samples from the mass ; but we feel inclined to 
give another instance, to show that these facts abound 
all through the New Testament as well as the Old. 

The Saviour's Prediction. " And when ye shall 
see Jerusalem compassed ivith armies, then know that 
the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which 
are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let them which 
are in the midst of it depart out ; and let not them 
that are in the countries enter thereinto ; for these 
be the days of vengeance. And Jerusalem shall be 
trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the 
Gentiles shall be fulfilled:' Luke 21 : 20-24. 

Observe, first, the time the Redeemer fixed and 
left on record for his followers and children to depart 
from that devoted city, was the time when it must 
seem to them that they could not get out of her. 
How were they to escape after the invaders had sur- 
rounded them ? The church in Jerusalem had in- 
creased sometimes as fast as several thousand in a 
day. How were these families to depart, when Je- 
rusalem was compassed with armies ? The sign 
named by the Saviour as the token of their flight 
was of itself an impassable barrier in the way of 
their travel. The incident which dictated their hasty 



60 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

journey must necessarily hedge up their way. If the 
reader wishes a particular recital of many striking 
incidents, let him turn to the contemporary historian 
Josephus, who was himself an actor in the military 
occurrences of the time. This much admired and 
much respected writer does not seem to have known 
or to have remembered that the Saviour had said any 
thins: of the Roman eagle standing where it ought 
not, or of Jerusalem being compassed with armies. 
When this siege did occur, he relates the circum- 
stances truthfully, although it is evident he did not 
know that they were appointed of heaven. The ban- 
ner which the soldiers worshipped, and which the 
prophet called the " abomination which maketh deso- 
late," waved before the temple gates. Josephus re- 
lates accurately the movements of the Roman general 
Cestius, on that occasion. He informs us, that when 
he might have taken the city speedily, and with com- 
parative ease, thus terminating the war at once, he 
led his army away. He retired " without any just 
occasion in the world." Josephus seems to want 
words to express his surprise at the conduct of this 
commander. Perhaps Cestius scarcely knew himself 
why he thus acted so much to tho astonishment of 
beholders ; but had we been there, knowing what we 
now know, we could have told all spectators and his- 
torians the reason why he withdrew. God's people 
were in that city. His little flock — little in com- 
parison with the multitude of the ungodly — -never 
noticed by the haughty of this world unless to deride 
or calumniate, are never forgotten by him. They 
were to seek safety in the mountains ; they were to 



BIBLE FACTS NOT EXAMINED. 61 

have an opportunity to retire. To afford this, the 
Roman legions must be taken to a proper distance. 
They were thus conducted, and the followers of the 
Saviour with their families did retire. The young 
reader is here again reminded that we are not giving 
merely the Christian account of these things. He may 
gather these facts from the pens of ancient and modern 
unbelievers, if he prefers their testimony. When those 
who had vociferated, " Crucify him, crucify him ; his 
blood be upon us and our children," were crucified 
themselves, with their children, around the walls of 
their blazing city, nailed many on the same cross, 
until there was no more space on which to plant a 
cross, and no more wood of which to make one ; when 
famine, gnawing, unparalleled famine, was doing a 
work along those crowded streets, the bare recital of 
which would cause the stupid, the callous, or the 
cruel to faint with sickening horror, there were no 
Christians there. They had gone to Pella. They 
had watched for the Redeemer's token, and obeyed 
the signal. Those words spoken by the Man of Cal- 
vary, unheeded by the world then, unnoticed by after- 
generations, and that scoffers of the present age 
scarcely know are in the Bible, were the means of 
their salvation. Let the reader bear these incidents 
in mind, until we come to the application. 

Observation second: "And Jerusalem shall be 
trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the 
Gentiles shall be fulfilled." 

An inspired apostle, Paul, at the command of the 
Holy Ghost, had given the church to understand — 
shall we say fortunately or unfortunately—that this 



62 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

fulness of the Gentiles was to synchronize with the 
conversion of the Jews at a glorious period in the 
latter days. The prophet Daniel, in the prediction 
quoted by our Lord, lets us know that the desolations 
of Jerusalem were to continue until the end of the 
struggle between Christ and antichrist. The Saviour 
himself, in other discourses, lets us know that these 
Ions: desolations would not terminate until the latter 
days. "What an opportunity to defeat the declara- 
tions of the Messiah, and to show that Jerusalem 
should not be trodden down of the (xentiles through 
after-ages. The Israelites have been rich enough 
to build a score of temples during any period of 
their widest dispersion, or of their deepest, heavi- 
est oppression. Notwithstanding the reiterated mas- 
sacres, the constant apostasies or lapses into hea- 
thenism, the uninterrupted commingling with their 
oppressors, etc., there has been no portion from any 
one of the eighteen centuries now gone by, during 
which there might not have been counted two mill- 
ions or three — a number sufficient to populate the 
hills and vales of Canaan — and zealous enough to 
venture almost any thing, or to endure almost every 
thing for the Zion of their songs. If some kino: of 
the earth, some sceptred potentate would only sanc- 
tion or countenance their return, what would they 
not perform ? The Lord allowed them just such a 
man ; nay, a more powerful leader : one w T ho sat on 
Cesar's throne, who nodded and the nations trembled. 
The emperor Julian was an accomplished warrior. 
He ruled over the land shown to Abraham, and ten 
times as much. He hated the Saviour as bitterly 



BIBLE FACTS NOT EXAMINED. 63 

as those who crucified him. He had been educated 
under the sound of the gospel, and knew the words 
of Christ. He was familiar with the writings of the 
evangelists. He resolved that Jerusalem should be 
trodden under foot of the Israelites, instead of the 
Gentiles. The reader is invited to examine the 
account of this as given by one whose hatred of the 
gospel equalled that of Julian himself. The author 
of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire was 
under the necessity of stating some facts concerning 
this effort to defeat the words of Christ, made by the 
mighty and the wise. At the invitation of the em- 
peror, the children of Judah assembled to rebuild 
their temple and to claim the inheritance of their 
fathers. Their enthusiasm was wonderful. Even 
their delicate females were seen carrying off rubbish 
in their silver veils. Their joyful companies labored, 
cheered on by the sound of instruments of music and 
animating voices. But the emperor did not trust 
this undertaking to the Israelites alone. "Wealthy as 
they were, devoted as they were, he resolved to make 
this matter more certain still. He could aid by his 
proclamations, his royal decrees, or his treasures, but 
it was not a trifle he had at heart ; to show the gaz- 
ing earth that the Jewish worship should be restored, 
where the Lord had said the Gentiles should continue 
to tread, was no ordinary achievement. He went 
himself to their aid with those cohorts and those 
legions that had crossed rivers, hills, and deserts, 
that had elevated or dethroned monarchs, and before 
whom it w T as hard indeed to stand. Here then was 
to be a trial of the strength of heaven and the strength 



64 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

of earth, in determined contest and fairly balanced 
opposition. Jews and Romans, Christians and hea- 
thens, gazed to see whether the emperor could or 
could not go contrary to the declaration uttered by 
the Man of sorrows, who had not where to lay his 
head. The earthly potentate was defeated. He 
abandoned the undertaking. This fact, recorded by 
Christians and by infidels, would be enough for our 
present purpose, were we to say nothing concerning 
the means of his defeat. To show that Jerusalem 
has been still trodden down of the Gentiles, is mainly 
the point we have in view; and it is all we shall no- 
tice when we come to the application. But for the 
purpose of exhibiting the way in which opposers uni- 
formly narrate that which they dislike to pen — we 
must notice the strange want of fairness and of truth 
belonging to unbelieving historians, leading them 
sometimes to conceal and sometimes to pervert — we 
look for a moment at Gibbon's history of this event. 
He grants that it was said the workmen were driven 
from their work by a supernatural visitation ; that 
they were scorched by fire again and again ; that an 
account of this public and marvellous defeat was 
published the same year by two individuals — but 
these individuals were Christians. That their state- 
ment was neither denied by the emperor or his friends, 
nor contradicted in any way, does not seem to have 
weighed much in his estimate of the singular occur- 
rence. It is true that Gibbon speaks well of a cer- 
tain heathen writer, Ammianus Marcellinus, who 
was the emperor's private secretary, and who became 
his biographer. It is true he quotes the following 



BIBLE FACTS NOT EXAMINED. 65 

words of Ammianus, who knew as much of the defeat 
and the cause of it as did the emperor himself. u While 
Alypius, assisted by the governor of the province, 
urged with vigor and diligence the execution of the 
work, horrible balls of fire breaking out near the 
foundations, with frequent and reiterated attacks, 
rendered the place from time to time inaccessible to 
the scorched and blasted workmen ; and the victorious 
element continuing in this manner absolutely and 
resolutely bent, as it were, to drive them to a dis- 
tance, the undertaking was abandoned." If the his- 
torian had simply quoted this testimony, telling us 
that although this reputable heathen author was a 
spectator of these things, and was recording his own 
failure along with that of his master, still he, Gib- 
bon, did not credit the recital, there would have been 
nothing unfair in the transaction ; but his efforts to 
prejudge the case and bias the reader's mind against 
evidence, certainly evince a repugnance to the un- 
obstructed ray of light. It is not our object here to 
inquire how much credulity they must possess who 
can believe that no one was found to contradict these 
statements of Pagans and Christians, out of all the 
Jewish, nation, and out of all the Roman army, or 
from the ranks of the admirers or flatterers of royalty. 
A sermon which was preached within that genera- 
tion is still extant, addressed to the Israelites as a 
persuasive, leading them to obey the gospel ; they 
were reminded of this noted overthrow, and invited 
to go and look again at the materials and other tokens 
of their rebuke from heaven while endeavoring to go 
contrary to the purpose of the Maker of worlds. "We 



66 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

might pause and inquire how strange that any one 
wishing them to embrace Christianity, should remind 
them of that which they had never known, and speak 
to them of wonders which they had never witnessed, 
as though these marvels were fresh in their recollec- 
tion ; but these are not the points before us. The 
certainties alone are enough for our purpose. "We 
know that Jerusalem has been trodden down of the 
Gentiles seventeen hundred years. "VVe know that 
the Jewish worship was not restored ; and that if a 
wealthy and enthusiastic people, aided by an emperor 
and his army, were not enough to build another 
temple, then nothing ever could accomplish it. 

Application. Should the reader desire to ascer- 
tain whether those who scoff at holy writ do not oc- 
casionally have their curiosity, at least, awakened by 
such incidents as those above named, so far as to lead 
them on towards further inquiry, he may soon bring 
the matter to a fair trial by asking such questions as 
the author has often asked. Inquire the reason why 
the Christians left the city, and were not involved in 
ruin and misery such as the world had never seen 
before. Had they more political sagacity than their 
countrymen ? Or why did not some fifty or a hun- 
dred thousand of the more prudent Jews retire to 
Pella, and share the safety which the Christians there 
enjoyed ? Or, if the church had been watching for 
the token, and obeyed the signal of the Redeemer, 
did he only conjecture the sign, or was he Lord of 
armies ? How did he know that the dispersion would 
continue, and that Jerusalem would never recover 
her Mosaic forms of worship ? etc. 



BIBLE FACTS NOT EXAMINED. 67 

Those who make such inquiries of such as reject 
the gospel at the present day, find, with striking uni- 
formity, that they do not remember, or they never 
knew accurately, what Christ had said of that peo- 
ple and that place. They are not informed as it 
regards Julian's ability, or his wish to disprove the 
prophecy ; what unbelieving historians have acknow- 
ledged on these points ; what were the sufferings of 
those who killed the prophets and stoned the apostles, 
or indeed of any other fact or facts of this kind. It 
is only some hearsay difficulty, some seeming contra- 
diction, or some objection of their own against the 
book of inspiration, which seizes and retains their 
thoughts when the subject of inspiration is men- 
tioned. 

There is another branch of wilful ignorance which 
must not be passed by without notice, but at present 
we are otherwise employed. 

Scoffers of the present day are unacquainted with 
all those facts of historic authority which have a sec- 
ondary connection with the holy page ; but for the 
present we must show what we mean by saying they 
are ignorant of Bible language. 



68 CAtJSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

SCOFFERS OF THE LAST DAYS ARE WILFULLY IGNORANT 
OF BIBLE LANGUAGE. 

An old man of Kentucky became rich and mocked 
at Grod. He became more and more bitter, just as 
fast and in proportion as his kind Saviour heaped the 
blessings, comforts, and luxuries of life around him. 
He took up the Bible and read the following passage, 
or one like it : " Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth, 
their idols were upon the beasts, and upon the 
cattle : your carriages were heavy loaden ; they are 
a burden to the weary beast. They stoop, they 
bow down together ; they could not deliver the 
burden, but themselves are gone into captivity." 
Isaiah 46 : 1, 2. 

"Here," exclaimed the old man, with more than 
anger depicted in his face, " here is the jargon which 
no one can understand, which I am required to be- 
lieve ; an unmeaning jargon." 

Reader, notice what that old man might have 
known, if he had read one fiftieth part as much Bible 
history as he had read of political disputes in his 
newspapers. Notice what he might have felt, while 
reading those verses, had he been humble enough to 
seek after knowledge ; had he even patiently con- 
versed with such of the pious as wished to speak with 
him on the great concern. He might have noticed 
that in the sacred book, Grod, by the mouth of his 



BIBLE FACTS NOT EXAMINED. 69 

prophets, spoke in the past tense of future events — 
that which he determined should take place was as 
certain as that which had already transpired. The 
old man might have reflected, that when Isaiah spoke 
thus of Bel and Nebo, the kneeling millions prostrate 
before those idols pained the hearts of God's people. 
The desolations of Zion, the subjugation and disper- 
sion of the worshippers of the true God, made his 
prophets mourn. How his servants would watch and 
wait to see the salvation of Israel, as connected with 
the fall of Bel and Nebo. That old man might have 
learned from common history, that those gold and 
silver images were broken down under the hammer, 
placed on mules and oxen, and while driving to dis- 
tant Media, the cattle were oppressed with the wea- 
risome load. 

The friends of God then, and the church ever 
since, while reading that passage, are cheered with 
the recollection that the Lord of glory invariably 
performs his promises of succor and deliverance. 
Their souls are fed with the glorious fact, that as he 
did not forget to fulfil his words of promise then, so 
he never will in future. The enemies of God might 
be reminded, if they would receive instruction, of 
the awful truth that his holy denunciations will also 
be verified. The passage is of course unmeaning to 
those who know nothing ; but shall God be answer- 
able for the wilful ignorance of man ? Those verses 
are full of comfort, sublimity, and heavenly glory to 
the pious who have sought after knowledge. The 
boasting worm who chooses to keep himself in utter 
ignorance, cannot of course understand this or any 



70 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

other passage which pictures ancient occurrences ; 
but the blindness is in his own dark mind. 

It is in this way that the educated and the brill- 
iant in other things have neglected every thing con- 
nected with God's book ; they have inquired after 
knowledge anywhere or everywhere else, and much 
of the sacred volume has no meaning to them. 



.BIBLE FACTS NOT EXAMINED. 71 



CHAPTER XIV, 

THE SUBJECT CONTINUED. 

A mocker who was admired for his strength of 
intellect, exclaimed, " "What unmeaning nonsense !" 
after reading either the following passage or one like 
it : " They shall jostle one against another in the 
broad ways. He shall recount his worthies : they 
shall stumble in their walk ; they shall make haste 
to the wall thereof, and the defence shall be pre- 
pared. The gates of the rivers shall be opened, and 
the palace shall be dissolved" Nah'tt'tn 2 : 4-6. 

Suppose this scoffer had condescended to inquire. 
He might have read this chapter with tears of won- 
der and of joy. 

Before the invention of cannon, the walls of Nin- 
eveh, so famous for their height and their width, were 
trusted in as impregnable by those proud enemies of 
Jehovah's people. Perhaps, to many of them, the 
opening of the gates of the rivers was as unintelli- 
gible as it is now to modern mockers ; but the Lord 
taught them its import with fearful accuracy. An- 
cient history informs us that during the siege in 
after-days, there arose one inundation of the Tigris, 
unparalleled, as far as we can learn, in previous 
ages or in succeeding centuries. It swept down 
that boasted wall, on the top of which three char- 
iots used to drive abreast, by furlongs. Through 
these awful gates the river entered and melted down 



72 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

their palaces and their piles of bricks ; showing to 
them and to us that God's word, however strange 
and unlikely, will always be fulfilled ! If man keeps 
himself in such ignorance that he cannot understand 
or be profited by these glorious flashes of heavenly 
light, who will finally bear the shame, the book of 
light, or the uninformed mocker ? You may spread a 
table of pure and wholesome food which the perverted 
appetite of the sated epicure will not receive ; but his 
feelings of disgust do not change the existing nature 
of those really desirable viands. There is no passage, 
no fraction of a passage, within the covers of that 
blessed book, which is not rich with treasures of in- 
structive truth, or full of music and of light ; but it 
is an old fact, that men may close their eyes and stop 
their ears, until they cannot judge of or even per- 
ceive sight or sound. 



BIBLE FACTS I\ T OT EXAMINED. 73 

CHAPTER XV. 

THE SUBJECT CONTINUED. 

In how many instances every day does it happen, 
that the Bible is cast away with indignant scorn, af- 
ter some one, wise in his own estimation, has read a 
sentence resembling that which follows : " Oh, that 
thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest 
come down, that the mountains might flow down at 
thy presence, as when the melting fire burnetii, the 
fire causeth the waters to boil, to make thy name 
known to thine adversaries, that the nations may 
tremble at thy presence !" Isaiah 64 : 1, 2. 

If we were to address a scoffer who says, "'I 
cannot understand this book," after reading such a 
page, we might make to him two several state- 
ments : 

1. Fellow- worm, if you will place yourself at the 
foot of that volcanic precipice, at the time when the 
broad, deep, and dreadful torrent of melted ore flows 
down its side, while the boiling ocean retires before 
this red tributary ; if you will gaze at the electric 
flash, and hear the subterranean thunder, you will 
confess, unless you have stupefied your soul with 
sin until you cannot feel, that no spectacle towards 
which mortal eye could be directed, is more calcu- 
lated to awaken in us a recollection of the grandeur, 
the power, and the dreadfulness of the awful One. 

2. If you never have, like the prophet, felt so 

Ceuse and Cure. 4 



74 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

pained by the wickedness, the blasphemy, ingrati- 
tude, and daring insults of rebellious man, that you 
longed to see them overawed and stilled into obedi- 
ence by some striking manifestation of Jehovah's 
power, it is because you have no piety, and never felt 
any genuine filial gratitude towards the giver of all 
the mercies which sustain you ; but you should not 
scorn those who have. 

Oh, every line of that inspired page is sweet, or 
reproving, or grand, or instructive, or cheering; but 
men love darkness rather than light, and the learned 
are too ignorant to understand the plainest words 
that ever were written, provided those words come 
from heaven ! 



BIBLE FACTS NOT EXAMINED. 75 

CHAPTER XVI. 

THE SUBJECT CONTINUED. 

" And the daughter of Zion is left as a lodge in a 
garden of cucumbers." 

There was a man who had read Xenophon and 
Longinus, Cicero and the Latin poets. He was ap- 
plauded by his friends for what they called his mind. 
The passage quoted above, and hundreds like it, he 
said appeared to him not only unmeaning, but weak, 
puerile, and inelegant. In process of time he was 
led by the notes of modern travellers, seemingly by 
accident, to remember that these little lodges are 
built for the habitation of a single watcher, to pre- 
serve from the ravages of birds, etc., those oriental 
gardens. We are told that if we sail on the bosom 
of that gentle river, and look to the slope where the 
quiet sunshine rests on those lonely and solitary 
dwellings during the stillness of evening, nothing 
on earth is more calculated to bring into the bosom 
a feeling of desertion and desolation, than this image 
from the prophet's pen, picturing the decay of Jeru- 
salem. 

This self-important man afterwards confessed that 
the deficiencies were in his own stupid soul, and that 
the language of the Bible was indeed the style of 
heaven.^ 

* Perhaps one confession ought to be made to the infidel 
world. It is, that Christians should not he too loud in their 



76 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

MEN HAVE LOVED DARKNESS RATHER THAN LIGHT. 

AVe have endeavored to hold up to view that 
strange tendency and natural leaning towards false- 
hood, in matters of religion, which we possess with- 
out being aware of it. We will endeavor to illus- 
trate this same truth by another process. It should 
be presented in another attitude. We think the 
weakness of props on which opposers rest, gives a 
full exhibition of this truth. If men base a fabric 
of their eternal expectations on decayed weeds, while 
k an enduring rock is close at hand, there is some 
strange reason for such a choice. There is some- 
thing defective in his heart or in his head, who is 
content to cast away the book of G-od, and venture 

voice of condemnation, so long as they practise the same sin 
which they reprove. 

Christians believe that their heavenly Father has sent them 
a long, kind letter from heaven ; that they owe it to him to 
read every line of it to their children, and make them ac- 
quainted with all interesting concomitant facts. For want of 
this knowledge, many of the youth of our nation have grown 
up scoffers. Rather than risk this, encounter any trouble a,nd 
expense ; better have a professor at college for every book in 
the Bible ; better recite a morning lesson on every line in the 
book ; better endanger the loss of all other knowledge. How 
is the actual practice of the church in these things ? When 
the Christian parent places his son in the academy or college, 
does he say to the teacher, " Whatever else you may omit, see 



FACTS NOT EXAMINED. 77 

all the terrors of the judgment-day upon some one 
feeble cavil, which is annihilated as soon as a few 
facts are presented. 

Out of many we must select a few, and such as 
we have heard urged most frequently. 

Case 1. An amiable lawyer, after urging his 
toilsome but successful course for many years, at last 
won a seat in Congress. On his way to the meeting 
of that assembly, he was taken with a disease which 
at first did not seem alarming. A physician, with 
whom he was on terms of intimacy, went to see 
him. This physician was one who thought the soul 
of great value. He believed the disease one of those 
which flatter but destroy. He felt impelled to tell 
his friend so, and to ask as to his preparation for 
crossing the river of death. The lawyer answered 
him that he could not believe in Christianity. The 
doctor asked if he had ever investigated the mat- 
ter. He replied that he had read such and such 
books on the subject, naming over some five or six 

that you teach him the ancient literature connected with the 
Bible ?" No, this is not his charge, this is not his expectation. 
He knows that his son will he taught daily, laboriously, and 
invariably, Virgil, Horace, and other heathen authors, contain- 
ing many most exceptionable passages. But if a college has a 
rule that the Bible is to be part of the course, it is an unpopu- 
lar rule, and often the teachers are themselves ignorant of 
Bible facts and Bible language. The haters of God have ex- 
claimed, " The college is no place to learn religion ;" and this 
weak dogma Christians have obeyed scrupulously, and Bible 
facts and Bible language form no part of the nation's study. 
Books on these points — Lardner, Grotius, Shuckford, Prideaux, 
etc. — are almost out of print ; they may be found in a preacher's 
library, but even there, will in many cases be sought in vain. 



78 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

infidel authors, and that he deemed this a sufficient 
research. Being asked if he had never read any- 
thing on the other side, he confessed he never had. 
His friend told him that he deemed this a strange 
investigation, but would wish to hear the argument 
of his strongest confidence, that on which his hope 
leaned with the most quiet security. His answer 
was substantially as follows : " I can never believe 
in the darkness said to prevail over the land at the 
crucifixion of Christ. The strange silence of all 
writers, except the evangelists, disproves the state- 
ment ; the elder Pliny particularly, who devoted a 
ivhole chapter to the enumeration of eclipses and 
strange things, would surely have told us of this oc- 
currence had it been true." His friend the physician 
answered him with the following facts : 

" My dear friend, permit me to tell you where 
you obtained that statement concerning the silence 
of contemporary authors, and the chapter of Pliny de- 
voted to eclipses. You read it in the second volume 
of Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. 
There would be some degree of force in the state- 
ment, were it not for one individual circumstance ; 
that is, it is not true ! A tree painted on paper may 
resemble an oak, but it is not an oak. There is not 
a word of truth in Mr. Gibbon's account, although 
the falsehood is polished. That which he calls a dis- 
tinct chapter of Pliny devoted to eclipses, seems to 
have taken your full credence. Pliny has no such 
chapter ; it is only a sentence, an incidental remark 
as it were. It consists of eighteen ivords. I will re- 
peat them to you, if you wish to hear them. The im- 



FACTS NOT EXAMINED. 79 

port of the remark is, that eclipses are sometimes very 
long-, like that after Cesar* s death, when the sun was 
pale almost a year. A man hears of many things 
which he does not write. Pliny does not mention the 
darkness, but Celsus does, and so do Thallus and Phle- 
gon, Origen, Eusebius, Tertullian, and others, some 
of them Christians and some of them pagans." The 
reader can see Home's Introduction, vol. 1, chap. 2. 
"I am sorry you took the word of that author, 
splendid as were his talents ; for he sometimes pen- 
ned falsehood without scruple, if religion was his 
topic." 

The sick man was silent, and fell into a long deep 
revery. After a few days he said to a relative, " If 
what I read in youth gave my mind a wrong bias, I 
suppose I must abide the consequences, for I cannot 
investigate now." He fell into convulsions and died. 

Reflections. Poor man ! the truths of the gos- 
pel and the evidences of Christianity were presented, 
to him, and he turned away. He read a statement 
against the Bible made by a modern historian who 
hated Christianity, and he received it at once with- 
out asking farther. He took hold on a falsehood 
without one moment's delay or hesitation, relied 
upon it, and continued to believe it for twenty years, 
never asking after further testimony. Surely men 
love darkness rather than light. Ten thousand 
fruitful facts were before him and around him on the 
page of history — they favored Christianity, and he 
did not observe or remember them. The first his- 
toric lie he met satisfied him. It seemed opposed to 
revelation. 



80 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

MEN HAVE LOVED DARKNESS RATHER THAN LIGHT. 

Case 2. Several physicians of Virginia declared 
to each other that the Bible could not be true, because 
the doctrine of the resurrection was taught there, and 
this they deemed impossible. They mentioned the 
case of a man whose body was carried in fragments 
to different parts of the earth ; and asked, with ex- 
ulting laughter, how he was to recover his body after 
it had been dissolved, mingled with earth, grown 
again into vegetables, then again forming a part of 
other animals and other bodies, age after age. Hun- 
dreds and thousands make this the strongest prop of 
their system of unbelief, but physicians are mentioned 
here because they are familiar with facts which would 
utterly forbid any one being influenced a moment by 
such reasoning, unless he had a strong appetite for 
falsehood and a full disrelish for the truth. That 
men of science have trusted in the hope that the 
resurrection could not take place, because part of the 
same body may have belonged to different men and 
different animals, exhibits so glaringly and unde- 
niably the love for darkness, that we must take some 
time and some space to review the fabric of their 
confidence. We must encounter some toil and exer- 
cise some patience, to make that perfectly plain to 
the youthful or the unlettered, which is so readily 
understood by the anatomist. 'We must and will 



FACTS NOT EXAMINED. 81 

expose, if we can, that which has led the scientific to 
propose a difficulty in the doctrine of the resurrec- 
tion. Let enlightened readers then bear with us, 
while we explain things well known to them, for the 
sake of the uncultivated. The inferences will be of 
equal importance to all. The application is profit- 
able to each one of us. 

Let the following facts be noted and impressed 
on the memory. 

First fact. G-od tells the righteous that their 
bodies, although made out of the materials belonging 
to their present frames of earth, will shine and be 
very splendid. 1 Cor. 15 : 40-49. God can make 
very durable and very glorious things, out of mate- 
rials the very opposite of firmness or of brilliancy. 
He has done this. Of all the substances with which 
we are acquainted, we esteem diamond the hardest 
and the most glittering. Charcoal is as black and as 
crumbling as any other body known to us, yet these 
two bodies are the same. The learned know, the 
ploughboy does not, that the difference between char- 
coal and diamond is, that the Creator has ordered a 
different arrangement of particles. The same ma- 
terials are differently placed, that is all. If any are 
wishing for a body more beautiful than they now 
have, they may be assured that G-od can, if he 
chooses, take our present fragile, corruptible forms of 
clay, and make out of them something exceedingly 
glorious. "It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in 
glory." Out of a certain spot of earth a flower arose, 
which waved in splendor ; the soil from which it 

grew was very black. 

4* 



82 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

Second fact. God has not told us how much of 
our present body goes into the composition of the 
new, on the morning of the resurrection. 

The figure used as an illustration by the inspired 
writer, to make his instructions plain on this subject, 
is the grain which is sown in the earth, decays, and 
out of which springs the new grain. It is perhaps a 
twentieth or thirtieth part of a grain of wheat, which 
springs up and forms a part of the new grain ; the 
rest rots and stays in the ground. It is not needed 
in the new body which God gives the wheat, and is 
not called forth again. Whether it will be a tenth, 
a twentieth, or a hundredth part of our present body, 
which is to enter into the formation of the new, God 
has not chosen to tell us, and we need not care, for 
the work will be well done and we shall know enough 
after a time. 

Third fact. The man who has lived here sev- 
enty years, has had very many bodies : perhaps less, 
perhaps more than seventy. God has not conde- 
scended to tell us out of which of these bodies he 
will take the new, or whether a portion of each will 
be used. 

Here let the young reader be very careful to note 
and remember, the body he has now is not the same 
body he had last year. Our bodies change continu- 
ally. The man who is kept from food in any way, 
no longer than one week, finds, at the end of that 
time, he has not as much body by many pounds, as 
lie had seven days before. In this way, how fast the 
body wastes is not yet accurately agreed on. Our 
food is only supplying this continued waste. The 



FACTS NOT EXAMINED. 83 

bones change also, but not so fast as the softer parts 
of our frames. How the body can waste, and be 
again renewed, is singular and interesting, but not 
easily understood without close thinking. It will be 
worth while to take some pains, and drop anatomical 
style, or physiological style, and speak in a way to 
be understood by all. The young reader may be led 
to admire the wonderful works of Grod, while pre- 
paring to comprehend a fact connected with his own 
resurrection. Every little boy knows what a vein 
is. He is also capable of understanding what is 
meant by a vein forking, or branching again and 
again, until it becomes exceedingly small, like those 
he has seen running over the eye when it is inflamed. 
Then again, he can fancy that if one of these small 
veins shall divide into a thousand branches, in run- 
ning a short distance, they must become so small 
that they cannot be seen by the eye alone. And if 
thousands of these branch a thousand times, they 
will lay over each other finer and more plentifully 
than the hair of the head. These small veins physi- 
cians call vessels, bloodvessels. Running through, 
and along with these, are other vessels as small and 
as numerous, that are not called bloodvessels. If 
we place a small pebble in a leathern tube, and con- 
tract our fingers behind the pebble, we may push it 
from one end of the tube to the other. In this way, 
and through these countless millions of vessels, our 
food changed to blood is conducted to every part of 
the body where it is needed. "We call that which 
is so much smaller than the dust of flour that we can- 
not see it, a particle. When any of the body which 



84 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

we now have shall have remained long enough where 
it is, to become too old and need changing, it is 
taken up by particles into these hairlike vessels ; 
the vessel contracts behind the particle and pushes it 
on the skin, and much of the body is lost in one day 
by what is called insensible perspiration. Others of 
these vessels lead in a different direction, and taking 
up particle after particle of the old body, it is thrown 
into the bowels, and so passes off. But from where 
these particles are taken there is left a vacancy of 
course, and if not supplied, the man is said to be 
falling away, or declining in flesh. Our food, day 
after day, is taken into the stomach, there prepared, 
taken up in particles by these small vessels, con- 
ducted to every part of the body, and deposited in 
these vacancies. Thus we think that any one can 
understand the necessity of daily food, and the won- 
derful process by which our sinking flesh is constantly 
sustained. But the inquiring mind sometimes de- 
mands, "If my body is thus totally changed, and 
so often, how is it that I look as I formerly did, or 
retain my shape in any way?" Answer: This you 
shall understand if you are willing to think indus- 
triously. Take a plate and cover it over with apples. 
On the top of this first layer of apples place a second, 
and on these a third, and so continue ; after a time you 
will have a pyramid, and one to crown the top alone. 
Then suppose one man approaches the plate, takes up 
an apple and throws it to a distance. Another man 
by, immediately drops another apple as large into 
its place ; your pyramid is still there, and retains its 
shape. The first man takes up apple after apple in 



FACTS NOT EXAMINED. 85 

swift succession, casting them to a distance, while 
the second man drops an apple into each vacuum as 
fast as they are made : your plate of apples may be 
changed a thousand times, and the pyramid is still 
there in full shape. Thus your body is changed and 
renewed by particles. The shape remains, although 
there is nothing about you, soul excepted, which 
was there in former years. It is a man's immortal 
part which constitutes his real identity. Blessed be 
(rod, the soul does not waste, and glory to his name, 
the body does ; thus leading us to remember our de- 
pendence on our heavenly Father. 

Fourth fact. We never had a body, a part of 
which did not come from every corner of the world. 
The rice of which that man is partaking grew in 
Georgia or the East Indies. That waterfowl once 
swam on the surface of a northern lake. That sugar 
came from Jamaica, and that fish once floated on the 
Newfoundland shoals. Young reader, do you expect 
to live a few months longer ? If you do, you must 
have in part a new body ; and where is it to come 
from ? It is probable that you will eat bread ; but 
the wheat from which this is to be made is now 
growing in your father's field, or in that of a neigh- 
bor. Hov/ is the growth of this wheat to be con- 
tinued ? Plants are sustained and nourished much 
from the air that floats past them ; it enters into the 
pores, the leaves drink it up, and it forms a part of 
their substance. But the air of the earth is always 
changing and streaming in torrents from one part 
of the earth to the other. This incessant motion 
is necessary to preserve its purity. The air which is 



86 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

to sustain that grain on whieh you are to feed, is 
not near it now ; it is on the other side of the earth. 
Vegetation is fed by the showers of heaven. Water 
forms a part of the wheat, an indispensable portion. 
But that water is not over the field now. The clouds 
come from a distance. The process of evaporation 
will proceed on the surface of distant oceans, if the 
atmosphere is made heavy with the showers that 
nourish that which is to nourish you. You never 
partook of any food, part of which had not been col- 
lected from distant lands and oceans all over the 
earth. 

Application. Here is a man who is acquainted 
with all these facts. He knows that the body he 
is to have, if he lives, is now diffused and com- 
mingled through all the elements of earth, air, and 
water ; but his belief is, that when he dies, if 
his body should go back into these elements, and 
be scattered abroad once more, God cannot collect 
it again. 

Well might heaven mourn, earth be astonished, 
and hell rejoice. I never could have believed this, 
if I had not seen and heard it. That scientific man 
is fully aware that for the twentieth time he has 
had a body gathered from the corners of the world; 
but his prop for eternity is, that (rod cannot do this 
once more on the morning of the resurrection. The 
fabric of his everlasting expectations rests on the 
creed, or the hope, that the Creator, who has given 
this other man fifty new bodies, will fail in the fifty- 
first effort, should he endeavor out of all these bodies 
to gather one new frame. 



FACTS NOT EXAMINED. 87 

If this system or religions creed is not the re- 
sult of man's disrelish for truth, and his love for 
darkness, then is there no such thing as cause 
and result. My dear friends. I do not envy you 
your tower of refuge. Be not angry with me if I 
prefer the Rock of ages for my security when the 
world reels. 



88 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

CHAPTER XIX. 

HEN HAVE LOYED DARKNESS RATHER THAN LIGHT. 

Case 3. A noted teacher of Latin who had read 
the Bible, and who had read many volumes of his- 
tory, averred that he could not receive the New Testa- 
ment : " For," said he, " the enemies of Christianity, 
pagan writers, would surely have noticed Christ and 
his apostles, or their writings, or their miracles il 
they had been performed." 

This objection was the ground of his creed, the 
pillar of his confidence. It has been such to thou- 
sands, and continues so to be. 

To show the strength of these objections, we will 
look at similar cavils in matters of common history. 
Suppose you were to meet an impetuous and loud- 
talking young man, who had taken up some strange 
dislike to the occurrences of the American revolution. 
"With flashing eye and indignant action, he declares 
that he does not believe one half of the statements of 
our historians. One of his most prominent difficul- 
ties and strongest objections he presents in the fol- 
lowing way: "I never can believe that Lord Corn- 
wallis marched his forces through Virginia. This is 
"Washington's native state, and he would certainly 
have opposed them had the enemy crossed its border. 
The British troops never could have been in Virginia ; 
common-sense tells me so ; because, had they ap- 
peared there, we are certain, from what we know of 



FACTS NOT EXAMINED. 89 

the character of "Washington, he would have inter- 
fered, he would have encountered them." Now, ob- 
serve, the secret of this marvellous difficulty is sim- 
ply this : Washington was a man disposed to meet 
the enemy speedily and unfailingly. Nothing pre- 
vents this objection against American history from 
possessing great strength, but one solitary circum- 
stance, and that is this : he did encounter, surround, 
and capture them. 

If a class of men should keep themselves in ob- 
stinate ignorance of the transactions at Little York, 
this cavil would to their minds possess great force ; 
but when the whole truth is told, we think a half 
idiot would turn away from the objector with con- 
tempt. Thus, when the scoffer says he cannot be- 
lieve the gospel, because he deems it altogether 
probable and to be expected, that other ivriiers be- 
sides the evangelists ivould have mentioned or allud- 
ed to the occurrences of those times, it is indeed true 
that these attestations, records, or allusions were to 
be looked for ; and all that prevents the argument 
having some weight is, simply, that these records and 
heathen testimonies were penned in the greatest 
abundance. The objector is not only ignorant of 
what was written in that age, but he continues per- 
severingly ignorant, as we are now about to show. 
Volney, Hume, Yoltaire, and other able infidel au- 
thors, make statements on these points utterly un- 
true. These the scoffers read, believe instantly, and 
never forget ; but answers written by friends of the 
gospel, they never read ; or if they do, it is cursorily 
and languidly, and almost every statement is forgotten 



90 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

before a month. All this the reader may observe for 
himself, if he be inclined. He may ascertain these 
facts from actual inquiry. He may test the matter 
whenever he chooses, by pursuing a course which in 
any degree resembles the following. Suppose he 
goes to thaj; unbeliever, or to as many of them as he 
chooses, in any part of the earth, and after remind- 
ing him that the emperor Julian lived so near the 
apostles that his grandfather must have been contem- 
porary with those who heard them preach ; that this 
monarch was not only a splendid warrior, but an 
able writer, of extensive information ; that in either 
writing or fighting against Christianity, such was 
his bitterness, that he put forth all his energies ; and 
then proposes questions like the following: " What 
does this learned emperor state in his writings con- 
cerning Peter and Paul, whom he hated so bitterly ?" 
"Had he any opportunity to learn whether or not 
the Saviour walked on the surface of the deep ?" He 
confesses he did. "What does Julian record con- 
cerning the blind in the villages of Judea beins: re- 
stored to sight ?" etc. Reader, you w T ill find that the 
man who was professedly asking after heathen testi- 
mony, either never knew facts of this kind, or his 
recollection is so dim that out of volumes of them 
he cannot relate accurately three circumscribed 
items ! Ask after the Greek philosopher at Athens, 
Aristides, who renounced heathenism,^ who wrote a 
letter to the emperor, etc. Ask what this man said 
concerning those who had been healed or restored 
by the apostles in his day. Ask the objector, if this 
* See Addison's Evidences. 



FACTS NOT EXAMINED. 91 

philosopher's testimony is weakened because the evi- 
dences of Christianity were so strong as to cause him 
to renounce the religion of his fathers and be bap- 
tized. Ask the objector what Celsus wrote concern- 
ing the companions of Jesus — who lived, he states, a 
few years before his time. Ask what this writer 
states of the Saviour's incarnation — of his being 
born of a virgin — of his flight into Egypt — of his 
baptism, etc., and you will find that the man who 
turns away from the testimony of early Christian 
writers because they were friends of Christ, also 
keeps himself in ignorance of the remarks, or con- 
fessions, or quotations written by his enemies. Such 
a man of course must be destitute of evidence. 



92 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 



CHAPTER XX. 

INCONSISTENCY OF UNBELIEVERS. 

Unbelievers demand heathen testimony concern- 
ing the book of the New Testament and the things 
contained therein ; but the testimony of pagans and 
Jews on all such points they have forgotten, or they 
never knew. 

Let those who can scarcely think this is so con- 
cerning the learned scoffer, go to him, or to as many 
as a thousand, severally, if so inclined, and ask, 
" What does Lucian say concerning the crucifixion 
of Christ ; concerning the doctrine of love which h8 
inculcated to his followers ; concerning the honesty 
and fair dealing of his disciples, their hopes of im- 
mortality ?" etc. You will find, that concerning 
the contents of the Talmuds, or Lucian, or Porphy- 
ry, Celsus, Tacitus, Pliny, Josephus, or any writer 
living near that age, they are almost entirely igno- 
rant, or their recollections are only a mass of con- 
fusion. 

We will notice another case, selecting it out of 
many, to show that those who ask for pagan testi- 
mony, wish indeed for no testimony on the subject. 
For the sake of the youthful or the unlettered, we 
preface the case with a few remarks relating to an- 
cient history. The Romans were in the habit of 
writing, and preserving among their senate's records, 
striking events and strange occurrences. Their gov- 



FACTS NOT EXAMINED. 93 

ernors used to send to the emperors a written ac- 
count of noted and remarkable transactions, which, 
were preserved under the name of these several gov- 
ernors, such as the acts of the principal men who 
ruled. Pilate sent on an account to the emperor Ti- 
berius of the Saviour's life, miracles, crucifixion, res- 
urrection, and ascension. These papers were called 
Acta Pilatij the acts of Pilate. Justin, who was a 
boy when St. John died, grew up in the Greek and 
heathen philosophy, was converted to Christianity 
about the forty-fourth year of his age, and wrote 
to Rome asking from Antoninus imperial favor and 
lenity for the Christians. Having written to the em- 
peror and his senate of the life and death of our Lord, 
of the dead that were raised, of the diseases that 
were healed, etc., he adds, "And that these things 
were done by him, you may knoiv from the Acts 
made in the time of Pontius Pilate" Tertullian 
wrote to the emperor, and refers to the Acts of 
Pilate. The early Christians, in their disputes with 
the Gentiles, referred to the Acts of Pilate as au- 
thority which no one disputed. These writers, or 
these disciples, were almost uniformly either Jews or 
pagans before their conversion, and once hated the 
name of Christ. 

Reader, go and ask the objectors of whom we 
have been writing, questions such as these: " Was 
the account of the Acts of Pilate, mentioned in the 
letters of Justin Martyr, less clear and credible be- 
cause he renounced his former faith and embraced 
Christianity ? Would Justin or Tertullian, or any 
other, writing to the emperor and senate, asking for 



94 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

their lives and the lives of brethren, and for kind- 
ness, favor, and toleration to all the church, refer them 
to papers which they did not possess, or to senatorial 
documents that did not exist ?" You will find that 
the objectors do not know who Justin, Tertullian, 
Irenseus, Clement, and Eusebius were; where, or 
when they lived ; whether any of their writings are, 
or are not extant, or what they wrote about. 



FACTS NOT EXAMINED. 95 



CHAPTER XXI. 

UNCEASING- CAUSE OF INFIDELITY. 

Suppose there burns a light of uncommon splen- 
dor, not far from a man who hates its radiance. Sup- 
pose it is his duty to gaze upon its glory, but he re- 
fuses ; this aversion may discover itself in a variety 
of attitudes, all tending to the one result. In the 
first place, he will not approach. Then, suppose an 
angel should descend, take him by the arm, and with 
the mastery of superior strength lead him near ; will 
the object be accomplished ? No ; one of his expe- 
dients is taken from him, but he can employ another. 
He turns away his head. He is next compelled to 
face the light, but he holds his hand before his face ; 
this forcibly is withdrawn, and he then shuts his 
eyes. Just so it has been with fallen man, in differ- 
ent ages, regarding the truth. 

u If I had been near to Sinai, in the days of Moses 
and of Joshua," said a young man ; " if I had stood 
at the foot of that thunder-rocked mountain, and 
heard the voice of God speaking to that nation, I 
never should have doubted the power of Jehovah ; if 
I had marched through the bosom of that retiring 
sea, and had been fed with manna, year after year, I 
never should have questioned the deity of my leader 
for a single moment." 

Neither did the Israelites ; this was not the form 
of their unbelief. Amidst all their rebellions, they 



96 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

never questioned the strength of Jehovah, or the 
facts recorded during their journey, a single hour. 
Their disrelish for the truth showed itself in the fol- 
lowing way: " May not different deities have the 
empire of the earth divided between them ? We 
know that our God is powerful ; but our neighbors 
say that their god is also powerful. May it not be 
well to seek the favor of both ? Might it not be wise 
to propitiate the favor of all ? Their worship is easily 
rendered ; it is very agreeable, and allows of the 
dance and- songs and joyous festivity." The unbe- 
lief of this age was the infidelity of idolatry. It is 
true that the Lord sent them teacher after teacher ; 
he chastised them, and warned them ; he continued 
his marvels, multiplying their opportunities, adding 
to their prophets and instructors, until idolatry be- 
came as impracticable in that nation as it would be 
now in the streets of Philadelphia. 

If some great man was to set up a gold or silver 
image in the street of one of our large cities, what 
is the reason he could not get the multitude to kneel 
before it ? Is it because of any love they have for 
the Bible, or any reverence for the name of Christ, 
or the precepts of his will ? No ; there are thou- 
sands there as wicked, as sensual, and as filthy, 
almost, as the imagination can paint. There is no 
danger that the wicked of our land will fall into this 
kind of idolatry. They cannot. That road has been 
blocked up. Books, education, truth, science, and 
heavenly light have been brought too near. So it 
was when the Redeemer stood in the streets of Jeru- 
salem. There was no fear that men would erect 



FACTS NOT EXAMINED. 97 

wood and stone and kneel before it, as their fathers 
did. G-od had removed such hiding-places. "Will 
they then receive the truth ? Shall we now see them 
listen and obey? No; they then say, " He casteth 
out devils through Beelzebub, prince of devils." This 
was the form infidelity then assumed. The heathen 
caught the same excuse and used it. They all qui- 
eted their fears in this way. The writers of the 
Talmuds knew well enough the events of their day. 
They were sufficiently acquainted with what the 
Saviour did and suffered. How is it, then, that they 
did not become his disciples ? How could they avoid 
submitting to the truth ? They say he had learned 
the correct pronunciation of the ineffable name of 
G-od. They say he stole this out of the temple. 
Again, they say he was in Egypt, where he learned 
the magic art, and practised it with greater success 
than any one ever did before him. See Home's In- 
troduction, vol. 1. They agree that he was the son 
of Mary, the daughter of Eli — was crucified on the 
evening of the passover — that the witnesses who 
swore against him were suborned, etc. 

" Celsusj one of the bitterest antagonists of Chris- 
tianity, who wrote in the latter part of the second 
century, speaks of the founder of the Christian relig- 
ion as having lived but a very few years before his 
time, and mentions the principal facts of the gospel 
history relative to Jesus Christ — declaring that he had 
copied the account from the writings of the evange- 
lists. He quotes these books, as we have already re- 
marked, and makes extracts from them as being com- 
posed by the disciples and companions of Jesus, and 

Cause and Cure. Q 



98 CAUSE A^D CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

under the names which they now bear. He takes 
notice particularly of his incarnation ; his being born 
of a virgin ; his being worshipped by the magi ; his 
flight into Egypt, and the slaughter of the infants. 
He speaks of Christ's baptism by John, of the de- 
scent of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, and of 
the voice from heaven declaring him to be the Son of 
Grod ; of his being accounted a prophet by his disci- 
ples ; of his foretelling who should betray him, as 
well as the circumstances of his death and resurrec- 
tion. He allows that Christ was considered a divine 
person by his disciples, who worshipped him ; and 
notices all the circumstances attending the crucifix- 
ion of Christ, and his appearing to his disciples af- 
terwards. He frequently alludes to the Holy Spirit, 
mentions God under the title of the Most High, and 
speaks collectively of the Father, Son, and Holy 
Spirit. He acknowledges the miracles wrought by 
Jesus Christ, by which he engaged great multitudes 
to adhere to him as the Messiah. That these mira- 
cles were really performed he never disputes or de- 
nies, but ascribes them to the magic art, which, he 
says, Christ learned in Egypt." Home's Introduc- 
tion, vol. 1. 

Now the Jewish and the Pagan writers, who 
knew what was done by Christ and his apostles for 
the space of forty years, were not under the neces- 
sity of becoming Christians. Men do not thus love 
the truth. The Jews and heathens who lived after- 
wards, with those who were raised from the dead, 
and with the children of those who were raised from 
the dead, declared, that although these things were 



FACTS NOT EXAMINED. 99 

done, they would not believe. Rather than submit 
to the truth, they would attribute all to the agency 
of evil spirits. We know where our parents and our 
grandparents lived. We know many things about 
them which we never saw. Thousands who heard 
their parents and their grandparents speak of those 
who had been restored to sight, or of the children of 
those who were thus restored, of their intimacy with 
them, etc., had as clear a knowledge of these facts, 
as we have that our fathers landed on the rock at 
Plymouth, or were victorious at Bunker Hill ; yet 
they would not obey the gospel. The magic art was 
their refuge. They did not, and they could not de- 
stroy themselves in that age by the unbelief of idola- 
try. This avenue to ruin was barred ; but to ascribe 
the works of Crod to demoniac influence the genius 
of the age permitted, and this^was their resort. 



100 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

THE SUBJECT CONTINUED. 

Shall men continue, age after age, to destroy 
themselves by the persuasion, or by the hope, that 
the Lord and his apostles acted through the agency 
of evil spirits ? No ; that kind of infidelity cannot 
last always. As sure as the copies of that New Tes- 
tament are multiplied, or much read in the churches, 
men will cease to attribute works of love and mercy 
to Satan. Preach that gospel extensively, and men 
will not believe in this creed of magic more readily 
than they now do. You cannot prevail on the most 
wicked, or the most ignorant blasphemer in any of 
our streets, to believe that Christ healed those who 
touched his garments, with the aid of fallen spirits. 
What is the reason that his enemies of the present 
day never think of accusing him of any connection 
with Beelzebub ? It is not because of any affection 
they have for him ; it is not because of their love, or 
their reverence, that they do not believe and cannot 
believe he learned the magic art in Egypt, where he 
certainly was in early childhood. No ; the lamp of 
knowledge has been held too near to them. No 
thanks to the wicked now, that the Lord has made 
that kind of infidelity inconsistent with the genius of 
the age : there is enough of hatred to Christ and his 
precepts ; enough of wickedness, ignorance, and pol- 
lution, to insure the rejection of offered mercy. His 
grace will be scorned, and his Messiahship denied, 



FACTS NOT EXAMINED. 101 

but not under the old pretext. New expedients will 
be devised, and other channels sought. Any thing 
rather than look at the light. Centuries have rolled 
away. The original witnesses have fallen asleep, and 
their children, and their children's children, for many 
generations. During the first three hundred years 
and more, after our Saviour's ascension, had any one 
attempted to deny facts of the gospel history, some 
would have looked him in the face with the remark, 
u My father or my grandfather saw it, or conversed 
with a man who saw it." Ages have passed away. 
The latter days are here. An inspired apostle was 
directed to announce, that in after-days there should 
come scoffers, mocking at the promise of his coming, 
and casting away the whole record. We have noticed 
three of the most prominent and conspicuous kinds of 
infidelity, or of the forms in which unbelief has ex- 
hibited itself. Other intervening kinds have existed, 
such as the infidelity of superstition, priestcraft, etc., 
but we have not time and space to write minutely of 
its every shape. The infidelity of the last day is here. 
The scoffing unbelief, as foretold, is come ; and it was 
to be accompanied with wilful ignorance, the offspring 
of a secret love for darkness. "We must continue to 
observe other indications of this strange disrelish for 
truth, and we search after it more faithfully, because 
those who possess it are unconscious of its existence. 
This preference for darkness may be detected from 
the fact, that men in support of their own systems of 
infidelity are more credulous than ordinary, and be- 
lieve that which is much harder to believe than simply 
to receive the truth. 



102 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

INCONSISTENCY AND CREDULITY OF THE REJECTERS OF 
THE GOSPEL. 

Rejecters of the gospel are exceedingly credu- 
lous, and in support of a false system, receive that 
which is harder to believe than the truth. 

Case of a Schoolmaster. An aged man, who 
had spent much of his time in teaching a Latin 
school, had read at times fractions of history, until 
he had become somewhat acquainted with a few of 
the facts we have named. This knowledge seemed 
to detract somewhat from that quietude which he 
had once possessed in scorning holy things. His 
restlessness evinced itself occasionally by his impa- 
tience and fretfulness under preaching; but he 
thought himself entirely tranquil, and hated the 
word Christianity. It so happened, that from his 
intercourse with his books and with his acquaint- 
ances, he learned something of the moral character 
of the early Christians. 

We will pause here long enough to inform the 
young reader how he may get the same knowledge, if 
he wishes it. As to what kind of persons they were 
who were baptized in the apostolic age, it is not hard 
to get an idea, because he may gather the account 
from friends and enemies. If we hear the character 
of a noted individual from those who love him, and 
are not entirely satisfied, we may ask further. Should 



CREDULITY OF INFIDELS. 103 

we receive the same account from a number of those 
who cordially hate him, we feel that this is all the 
testimony we could have on such a point. It is 
now, for the point before us, necessary that we should 
have some correct estimate of what kind of men and 
women those were who have been called primitive 
Christians. It may be that if I should refer the 
reader to the Acts of the Apostles, to the writings, 
or extracts from the writings, of Clement, Irenseus, 
Justin, Barnabas, Polycarp, and others, there are 
some who might inquire after other evidence, saying, 
that although, these had been either Jews or Pagans, 
yet they were Christians at the time they wrote ; 
and who knows but their partialities blinded them, 
or induced them to say things of their brethren more 
favorable than were deserved ? If so, then the reader 
can seek elsewhere for testimony. Let him take the 
word of those who hated them and put them to the 
torture. We may gather from the brief remarks of 
Pagan adversaries the same facts, more circumstan- 
tially related by friends to Christ. For example, if 
we consult the celebrated letter of the younger Pliny 
to the emperor Trajan, we shall find his statement 
sufficiently decisive. This Pliny became governor of 
Pontus and Bithynia not far from the time of St. 
John's death, but he had been in public life else- 
where long before. Pliny informs the emperor that 
he sometimes made the Christians confess under the 
torture. Two young females thus tried he men- 
tions particularly. He speaks of threatening with 
death, and ordering away to punishment for their 
inflexible obstinacy, until we begin to wish for the 



104 CAUSE AND CU?,E OF INFIDELITY. 

confession of those who were tortured. We begin to 
desire an account of their character and their actions 
thus obtained. Reader, if you will consult the nar- 
rative given by Pliny, you will find that the Chris- 
tians were brought to confess, 

1. That they were wont to meet together on a 
stated day, before it was light, and sing among them- 
selves alternately a hymn to Christ, as God ; 

2. And bind themselves by an oath — the word 
sacrament meant oath in the Roman tongue — not to 
the commission of any wickedness ; 

3. And not to be guilty of theft ; 

4. Not to be guilty of robbery ; 

5. I\ T ot to be guilty of adultery; 

6. Never to falsify their word ; 

7. Nor to deny a pledge committed to them when 
called upon to return it. 

The dullest reader, Ave suppose, has mind enough 
to see that if it is an enemy's testimony, collected 
from tortures and laborious research, that the aggre- 
gate of their criminal practices amounted to the fol- 
lowing, namely, repeated and solemn engagements 
never to speak falsely, to act dishonestly, or to com- 
mit any manner of wickedness, etc., it is certainly 
praise as loud as though a friend had written that 
they were honest and upright in their ways. 

Once more, we may gather from the writings of 
a hearty adversary just the same. Lucian was born 
a few years after the death of the oldest apostle. 

" Lucian, the contemporary of Celsus, was a bit- 
ter enemy of the Christians. In his account of the 
death of the philosopher Peregrinus, he bears authen- 



CREDULITY OF INFIDELS. 105 

tic testimony to the principal facts and principles of 
Christianity : that its founder was crucified in Pales- 
tine, and worshipped by the Christians, who enter- 
tained peculiarly strong hopes of immortal life, and 
great contempt for this world and its enjoyments ; 
and that they courageously endured many afflictions 
on account of their principles, and sometimes surren- 
dered themselves to sufferings. 

" Honesty and probity prevailed so much among 
them that they trusted each other without security. 
Their Master had earnestly recommended to all his 
followers mutual love, by which also they were much 
distinguished. In his piece entitled Alexander or 
Pseudomantis, he says that they were well known in 
the world by the name of Christians ; that they were 
at that time numerous in Pontus, Paphlagonia, and 
the neighboring countries ; and finally, that they 
were formidable to cheats and impostors." Home's 
Introduction, vol. 1. 

These statements from the haters of the gospel 
would be amply sufficient, if no one else had written, 
to furnish us with all the information we need con- 
cerning the meekness and integrity of the early dis- 
ciples. Go and collect and condense that which has 
been written by friends and enemies until you are 
satisfied ; then come and follow on with us to notice 
what they must believe who cast away the Bible. 

Before we proceed, however, we have still another 
preparatory remark or two to make. As it regards 
the number of the early Christians, any one who 
chooses may inform himself in the same way we 
have mentioned. For instance, if I read the pagan 



106 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

historian Tacitus, concerning the persecution at Rome 
during which St. Paul was put to death, and find 
him calling those who were burned ingens multi- 
tude), a vast crowd, I have testimony concerning the 
church in that city. For if those martyred were 
ingens multitude*, then it is no tortured inference to 
suppose the congregations from which they were 
taken, considerably numerous. Again, if we read 
from Pliny that the heathen temples had been almost 
deserted ; that this superstition, as he calls it, had 
seized, not cities only, but the lesser towns and open 
country, we may make some inference regarding the 
number and strength of Christian congregations there 
and then. The same information may be had from 
other authors, either friends or foes, or both ; but at 
present we must proceed with our narrative. 

We have said that the aged school-teacher had 
picked up some information concerning the Augustan 
age and the times which followed it. He had a par- 
ticular friend with whom he was willing at times to 
converse on the subject of religion without growing 
angry, but not long at once. This friend made to 
the old man a certain statement, and asked his belief 
on several different points. The following is as near 
the substance of that statement, and of those in- 
quiries, as recollection will restore. 

" My friend, I am about to ask you to draw a 
picture, then to look at it, and to meditate on it 
calmly for a few minutes. I am not about to ask 
you to describe, and then observe, all the churches 
and congregations of the Roman empire in the time 
of Nero or of Trajan. I will only ask you to notice 



CREDULITY OF INFIDELS. 107 

closely for a time one or two hundred churches, or 
Christian assemblies : these you may select wherever 
you choose ; from Greece, Asia Minor, or from Africa, 
or collect some from every portion of the mass. No 
matter, only fix your eye on one or two hundred of 
these congregations. Let them be neither the larger 
nor the smaller, but churches of the medium size. 
You know that as it is now, so it was then, these 
congregations were not composed of any one class of 
society alone, but some were seen of every descrip- 
tion in each assembly. Some were poor, some were 
not ; some ignorant, some learned. Variety has been 
found in every Christian assembly throughout the 
earth, in every age. I do not ask you to observe 
these congregations through all the time that Christ 
and his apostles were on earth, or as long as miracles 
continued to be performed in the churches ; but fix 
your eye upon them during just thirty years of that 
time. Enter now with me into one of them — we 
may say the church at Corinth — here is a congrega- 
tion of, say one or two hundred members ; some of 
them ignorant, others well informed ; male and fe- 
male, young and old. They were once all Jews or 
pagans, and very zealous for the religion of their an- 
cestors. Now they are professed Christians, although 
it is dangerous to wear that name, both to property 
and to life. These Christians say that some of their 
number were once blind ; but that they received their 
sight by virtue of the name of Jesus Christ, which 
was called over them. These Christians are altered 
in their conduct very much. They were, while 
pagans, very fond of theatres, feasts, and revels ; 



108 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

they were very sensual. Now, whether sincere or 
not, according to the statement of both friends and 
enemies their external conduct at least is very differ- 
ent. They are very careful to exhort each other every 
Sabbath, and to pledge themselves to each other con- 
tinually, to abstain from all that is false or wicked. 
They seem to believe that Sabbath after Sabbath cer- 
tain wonders are performed by themselves and breth- 
ren in the name of Christ. 

" They think that they understand and speak the 
languages of the nations and people around them. 
The apostles are writing to them month after month, 
and year after year, not to be lifted up or exalted 
because they have the gift of healing, etc., because 
pride is unlovely in the view of Heaven. The mem- 
bers of this congregation seem to think that they con- 
verse continually about the wonderful works of God 
with their neighbors, in all their different tongues — 
Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and dwellers in 
Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, in Pontus and Asia,. 
Phrygia and Pamphylia, Lybia and Cyrene ; Cretes 
and Arabians, Jews and proselytes. 

" Let us now enter into another congregation, and 
look round for a time, and then another and another, 
and so continue until we have reached just one hun- 
dred, in some five or six of the nations nearest Pales- 
tine. Now let us observe them closely for the first five 
years only, out of the thirty. Do you suppose that 
these congregations were deceived, thinking all the 
time that they spoke with tongues when they really 
did not ? Do you suppose that these hundred churches, 
for the space of five years, did think that they saw 



CREDULITY OF INFIDELS. 109 

the blind cured, the dead raised, and then lived with 
them afterwards, while all the time it was mere de- 
lusion?" 

The old man allowed that to take one hundred 
congregations out of any one nation of the Roman 
empire, and these congregations made up of mem- 
bers of every sect, temperament, class, and condition 
of mind and of body, and set their enemies to watch, 
to hate, and to kill them for their faith ; and it would 
be hard to believe that they all thought these things 
done, when they were not done, by themselves, even 
for the space of fifteen years, instead of thirty. That 
one hundred churches should all happen at the same 
time to be thus deceived in matters of eyesight, for 
fifteen years, he thought would be hard to believe ; 
and we agree with him. 

He was also reminded of a piece of information, 
which the reader may obtain whenever he chooses. 
"We have at present a need for a distinct view of the 
fact. It is concerning the meekness and patience 
under suffering which belonged to Christians, and 
which nothing could shake. The reader, who may 
not wish to take the account of the church on this 
point, can have the testimony of enemies whenever 
he chooses, and wherever he turns. We will cite but 
one example, and that is from the page of the cele- 
brated Pliny, which is already before us. Note his 
words : " I have put the question to them, whether 
they were Christians. Upon their confessing to me 
that they were, I repeated the question a second and 
a third time, threatening also to punish them with 
death ; such as still persisted, I ordered away to be 



110 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

punished, for it was no doubt with me, whatever 
might be the nature of their opinion, that contu- 
macy and inflexible obstinacy ought to be punish- 
ed." Others who were accused " denied that they 
were Christians, or had ever been so ; who repeated 
after me an invocation of the gods, and with wine 
and frankincense made supplication to your image, 
which for that purpose I had caused to be brought 
and set before them, together with the statues of 
the deities. Moreover, they reviled the name of 
Christ ; none of ivhich things, as is said, they who 
are really Christians can by any means be compelled 
to do. These, therefore, I thought proper to dis- 
charge." 

From the pen of this pagan ruler, the reader may 
gather all the praise which has ever been bestowed 
by friends. It is not hard to see to what he alludes 
in the words inflexible obstinacy ; and when he in- 
forms us that there were certain things which they 
could not by any means be compelled to do, he has 
told us all the fortitude and faithfulness we were ask- 
ing after. Reader, become acquainted with similar 
declarations and other scraps or detached passages 
from different heathen writers, and you will not de- 
mand information from Christian authors. 

The unbeliever had pronounced it hard of belief, 
that many congregations in the circumstances named, 
for many years at a time, should think themselves ca- 
pable, by using the name of Christ, of curing lepers, 
the blind and lame, unless it were so. 

To think that they lived long with those who had 
once been dead, and were in habits of intimacy with 



CREDULITY OF INFIDELS. Ill 

those who were born blind ; and to think that they 
remembered the Sabbath, and the hour when they 
saw them restored — he thought that these delu- 
sions were not likely to happen in many congrega- 
tions at the same time, or to continue very long, par- 
ticularly if all the profit to each member was the 
loss of goods and worldly honor and life ! He was 
reminded by his friend, that his difficulty would be 
somewhat increased after taking into account the 
fact, that those who sustain insult meekly and suf- 
fering uncomplainingly, with a quiet fortitude im- 
movable and deathless, are not the characters easily 
led into any vain delusion. 

It would be no harder to believe that a leper was 
cleansed, or a blind man made to see, at the com- 
mand of the Creator, than to believe that ten thou- 
sand eyes belonging to such characters as we have 
named, were deceived in supposing that they saw 
incurable diseases healed, in many instances and 
through many years, when it was not so ! It would 
be to believe in a miracle indeed, one hard of belief, 
to suppose that in very many different and distant 
nations at the same time, in open day and public 
streets, in cities, towns, and villages without number, 
ten thousand eyes were deceived in thinking they 
saw, ten thousand ears in fancying they heard, and 
ten thousand hands in supposing they handled, those 
who had been dead or dumb, lame or afflicted with 
all manner of diseases, healed and restored. 

Again, this aged unbeliever was asked, if it was 
easy to believe that these churches had all united 
to deceive ; that they were not deluded themselves, 



112 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

but had entered into a combination to delude oth- 
ers. His friend observed that he seemed somewhat 
perplexed. He remembered that it was the testi- 
mony of their enemies that they were formidable 
to cheats and impostors. He remembered, that 
according to Pagan authors, it was a noted part 
of Christian character to be often in the habit to 
renew their solemn pledges never to cheat, lie, or 
deceive. He confessed it was hard to believe that 
the pure and meek and firm, kind and inflexible, 
who would lose life at any moment rather than deny 
their word, all of which peculiarities their differ 
ent enemies avow of them, should be the actors in 
such a scene of deception. Any limb of his creed, 
any part of his system, when taken and followed 
out, he would agree was hard to believe ; but that 
our kind Creator should have pitied our condition, 
should have descended to instruct and to die for us, 
and should then offer us a heaven of purity where he 
himself resides, was what that aged immortal never 
would believe. 

It is true, that the wilfully ignorant, who do not 
know what either friends or enemies said of the 
character of early Christians, are incapable of under- 
standing any arguments on such points. Neverthe- 
less, it is a fact, that the sceptical, who have partially 
informed themselves — we say partially, for we never 
knew one who had industriously informed himself- — 
will swallow the greatest absurdities; they will take 
down the wildest incredibilities on the side of dark- 
ness, rather than believe any one plain, simple gos- 
pel fact, as related in the New Testament. And of 



CHEDULITY OF INFIDELS. 113 

all men on earth, unbelievers have to be the most 
credulous. They dare not carry out their creeds 
into particulars. Their doctrines wound and destroy 
each other to such an extent, that they do not ven- 
ture to state them clearly, but let it pass, saying, 
" I do not know how it is." 



114 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

MEN WHO CAST AWAY THE BIBLE, ARE CREDULOUS IN 
THE EXTREME. 

Case of a Moralist. There was a man who 
scorned Christianity, but was at the same time a 
great advocate for orderly behavior. He seemed to 
rely much upon his honesty in dealing : he defrauded 
no man. His friend said to him, " Let me ask you, 
what do you believe ? You must believe something. 
You say that you believe that God has made us, 
and placed us here. Thus far I agree with you, for 
here we are. The world he has made for our abode 
is one of considerable size, and well made. Our 
bodies are strangely made. We are curiosities to 
ourselves. We feel at times a strong inclination to 
know if our spirits are to die with our bodies, or if 
they are to live on. It would not have been very 
hard for our Maker to have given us some informa- 
tion on this, and on similar points, if he had chosen 
to communicate with us. I should love to know how 
long I am to exist. I should love to know what my 
Maker likes and what he dislikes ; what he approves 
and what he hates. He must be a being of prefer- 
ences. Intellectual beings always have choice. Some 
conduct must please, and the opposite of it displease 
him. I should have been glad to know some of these 
things, had he been able to inform me. Has he 
placed me here a wonder to myself, to guess at his 



CREDULITY OF INFIDELS. 115 

will ; or has he told me something of my origin, how 
long since man was made, what he expects or wishes 
from him, and what is to be his future fortune ? Is 
my Creator amusing himself at my perplexities, or 
has he left some guide by which I may find out all 
necessary knowledge ?" The moralist allowed that 
our heavenly Father had not left us in the dark, un- 
kindly or neglectfully. He said that reason was to 
be our instructor. He was loud and eloquent in 
praise of that celestial la?np, as he called it, which 
was to show the path of duty to every man. He 
said he had no use for the Bible, but reason directed 
him in every strait. His friend replied to him, in 
substance, as follows : " My dear sir, all your system 
of rectitude, etc., so far as it is worth any thing, you 
have stolen from the Bible. You are like the man 
who had taken up some strange hatred to the orb of 
day. He turned his back upon the sun and exclaimed, 
I have no use for your light ; I can see without 
your beams. My Creator has given me eyes for that 
purpose, and I use them, and see all around me with- 
out looking at you. He thought that because his 
eye was never directed towards the sun, therefore 
he did not use his light. But he was using light 
which had been reflected and thrown in a thousand 
different directions. So because you never read the 
Bible, you hope you are not using its contents. All 
you have, and all you know which is valuable, you 
obtained from thence, or from those who received it 
thence for you." 

This position we will prove, and then show what 
the moralist has to believe who thinks differently. 



116 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

If you will take the map of the world and a pencil, 
then sit down and draw a black line around that por- 
tion of the earth where the Bible has been in the 
longest and most plentiful circulation, where every 
class, high and low, are able to read, and do read the 
volume most commonly and with most ease, such as 
England, Scotland, and the United States of America, 
there you will find men most enlightened and most 
amiable in demeanor. There, wherever are most 
Bibles, men are less cruel, less polluted, and less un- 
principled. There they are less inclined to kneel 
before images of wood and stone, and more ready to 
understand and to practise the law of forgiveness 
and of love. Then sit down and draw a line around 
those countries where there are no Bibles, where none 
have been for generations, and there you will find most 
cruelty, most pollution, most absurd notions of Deity, 
and most darkness. Finally, mark off those sections 
of earth where that book has a partial circulation, as 
in Catholic countries, where it is read by a portion of 
the people, and with a medium frequency only, and 
there you will find a twilight in every thing. 

The moralist is either afraid to look long at or to 
follow out such facts, or he says, "It happened so." 
He believes in casualty to an almost unlimited ex- 
tent. The reader shall have an opportunity, if so 
inclined, to observe a portion of this credulity. It 
shall be exhibited in the words addressed to the mor- 
alist we have named, by his friend, or in words of 
similar import. 

" Dear sir, you believe that human sacrifices are 
cruel, and cannot please G-od. You believe that 



CREDULITY OF INFIDELS. 117 

drunken revels, or lascivious rites, cannot be accept- 
able worship in his sight, You do not think that self- 
torture pleases him, and you have no doubt but that 
he looks with disapprobation upon adultery, theft, 
lying, or murder. You think that acts of kindness, 
of mercy, and of love, are pleasing to our Maker. 
This, you think, your reason tells you of his charac- 
ter. Now observe, if reason taught you all this, then 
reason has done the same for the multitudes of the 
most ignorant, and the most besotted in all Christian 
lands. Mark well, I deny that reason was your in- 
structor, but it is true that something has thus in- 
structed men wherever the Bible is. Even those 
who cannot read it, know more truth about Grod than 
does the Mandarin of China. You could not in any 
way prevail on the most stupid creature you meet in 
our streets, to fall down before a block of wood and 
worship, believing it to be God. You may go to one 
hundred thousand of the most uninformed in Protes- 
tant countries, one after another, just as you meet 
them, and you will not find an individual who be- 
lieves, or can be made to believe, that he can please 
Grod by killing his child, or by boring through his 
own tongue, or by drunkenness, or obscene rites, or 
revels. If reason has taught these unlettered, igno- 
rant creatures so much truth, then it has taught them 
very uniformly ; and they all know much of what is 
right and what is wrong, in all moral deportment. 
But will you just reverse the picture ? Just look at 
the other side for a moment. Come with me across 
the ocean. Here is a populous nation. They have 
some science, they cultivate astronomy, and there is 



118 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

a class which may be denominated the learned. But 
the Bible has not been in use there for a thousand 
years. Go to one hundred thousand of the first you 
meet, one after another, learned or unlearned, and 
talk with them. If reason should have told them some 
truth about (rod, it has not done it — not one out of 
that whole nation who does not either believe that to 
strangle that infant would please God, or he believes 
obscene revelry to be a part of worship ; or he w T iil 
talk of the intrigues of his gods, or in some way show 
that he looks upon them as gigantic in wickedness. 
The most learned there believe in human sacrifices, 
or sensual rites, or absurd enormities, such as would 
excite the pity and the ridicule of the poorest and the 
lowest in our land. How is it that reason does not 
chance to teach where the Bible is not ? Glance your 
eye entirely across heathenism. If the Maker of 
worlds intended reason to teach men there some just 
notions concerning himself, it has failed in six hun- 
dred millions of instances in this generation, and in 
as many during the last generation, and as many the 
generation before that, and so on. If he expected 
that reason would tell men there only a few truths 
respecting his own character, what would please him, 
etc., he has been disappointed, or he has furnished an 
insufficient guide, for it has not succeeded in a single 
instance. If the wicked in the land of Bibles would 
do only what the Bible has taught them, they would 
need no more. That book has succeeded in teaching 
until they know how they should act. The most 
degraded and the most ignorant there know more of 
the proper worship of God, and of his proper charac- 



CREDULITY OF INFIDELS. 119 

ter, according to the character given of God by the 
deist, than does the most learned and the most 
exalted in heathen lands." 

Now we are ready to look at what the worshipper 
of reason has to receive in his creed. In the United 
States of America, or in England, there are some 
twenty millions of the human race, each one of whom 
knows much of the proper character of God ; much 
of what is lovely, and what is in itself hateful. Each 
one does know, with considerable correctness, that 
which would please God, and that which he must 
abhor. Here is a man who says, " Reason has taught 
them this." If so, it has not failed in a single in- 
stance. It has happened to be uniform in many 
millions of cases : surely we might suppose, that if 
reason is so sufficient that it has not failed in one out 
of twenty millions of cases, then leave it to itself in 
twenty millions more, and it will succeed in half of 
them. No ; it has not in one. In Asia and Africa 
you may count two hundred millions of persons now 
alive whose reason has been at work for twenty years, 
and out of the whole two hundred millions, there is 
not one who does not either believe that the favor of 
the gods may be purchased by self-torture or human 
sacrifice ; that sensuality is pleasing to them, or that 
they are opposed to each other, and may be courted 
in different ways ; or other sentiments equally absurd 
and grovelling. 

So it has been in past generations. Those ancient 
Greeks had great statesmen, orators, and poets. Suc- 
ceeding ages have gazed at them : they believed that 
to place that only son, that promising boy on an altar, 



120 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

and whip him until his entrails could be seen through 
the quivering flesh, would please Diana. Are you 
admiring the wealth, or the polish and the splendor 
of the Carthagenians ? They believed sincerely — so 
sincerely that they would perform it — that it would 
please God if one or two hundred of their children at 
a time were cast into that redhot metallic statue. 
Just such things were believed by Romans, Medes, 
Elamites, and all people where that singular old book 
did not circulate. Reader, if you believe that reason 
always did teach to avoid these cruel enormities 
where the Bible was found, but never did happen to 
instruct better where that page was not, then we 
have no further argument with you at present. If 
you believe that the low, and unlettered, and most 
ignorant in Bible regions — who have more correct 
ideas of God, and of justice, and of loveliness, than 
have the most scientific in pagan countries — have 
been thus instructed by reason, then will we cease 
all further discussion of that particular point with 
you. 



CREDULITY OF INFIDELS. 121 



CHAPTER XXV. 

MEN ADOPT FALSE OPINIONS "WITHOUT INQUIRY. 

A minister once delivered a discourse on the evi- 
dences of Christianity, in the city of New York. 
After the sermon was ended, and the audience dis- 
missed, he descended from the pulpit, and was met 
by an intelligent looking man, well clad, whose eye 
flashed, and whose voice trembled with emotion. He 
seemed angry at the cause which had been advo- 
cated, and at the man who had spoken. He avowed, 
with indignant emphasis, that he had no doubt the 
Israelites had obtained their religion from the Greeks, 
and particularly from the philosophy of Plato. The 
minister replied, " Your argument would be worthy 
of some consideration, were it not for one circum- 
stance, which certainly abates its momentum. You 
say that what the Israelites knew of God, they 
learned of Plato ; but Plato says, that what he, and 
the Greeks in general, knew of the gods, they learned 
of the Israelites." The ancient Greeks called the 
Jews Syrians, because they lived in the land of Syria, 
and because they called themselves thus. Every male 
of the Jews was ordered to stand, on a given day in 
each year, and avow his origin by pronouncing pub- 
licly, and with a loud voice, "A Syrian ready to 
perish was my father." The word fables was the 
epithet by which the ancient Greeks designated all 
narratives. Plato informs us — see Stackhouse's His- 

Ciuse and Cure. 6 



122 CAUSE AND CURE UF JNFIDELIT'Y. 

tory of the Bible — that one of the Syrian narratives 
from which his countrymen obtained their know- 
ledge, was the Fraternity of the human family, and 
that man was made out of the dust. Whoever will 
read ancient history, and notice the Greeks during 
their nocturnal mysteries, where youthful virgins, 
having baskets full of flowers with serpents in them, 
call on the name of our first mother, Eva, Eva, all 
night, will not be at a loss to know which of the 
Syrian narratives they had in mind, or what event 
they commemorated during these ceremonies. The 
minister's concluding remark to the scoffer above- 
mentioned, was satirical, but certainly not incorrect. 
" You remind me," said he, "of the boy who, while 
looking in the glass, loudly averred that his father's 
face took after his. An ancient Greek philosopher 
believed that he had learned certain things of the 
Syrians. A citizen of New York is very positive 
that the Syrians learned them of the philosopher. 
Which shall we believe ? or rather, let us ask the 
more profitable question, Why should that man as- 
sume that position with dogmatic confidence, with- 
out inquiry and without research ? It was for the 
same reason that ten thousand others in that and 
other cities, assume ten thousand similar positions, 
with as little information, and as much assurance. 
Since the fall of our race, men have had an appetite 
for falsehood so spontaneous, that they often adopt 
it without inquiry, in matters of religion. It does 
not seem to man that he prefers falsehood in points 
of religious faith. If he were aware of it, this know- 
ledge would become a part of the remedy. 



CURE OF INFIDELITY. 123 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

We now have offered a few thoughts on the cause 
of infidelity. We could, as it were, only pen a few 
hasty words ; endeavoring to offer some of the more 
simple and obvious reasons, by which we may know 
that it is caused by a want of knowledge, and by a 
want of love for the truth. Each of these items 
assists in promoting the growth of the other. We 
may resume the subject hereafter, and devote other 
chapters to the consideration of the cause of infi- 
delity ; but at the present, we feel disposed to say 
something of its cure. The cure of infidelity ! What 
a subject. The cure of infidelity! Can it be cured? 
Indeed it can. There are difficulties in the way, 
but all that is arduous is not impracticable. It may 
be cured thoroughly. All who have ever used the 
remedy were cured, therefore it is safe to say that it 
may be cured with certainty. It is known to the 
world of physicians, that the treatment of those dis- 
eases wherein the sick deem themselves entirely 
whole, is attended with unusual difficulties, because 
they are not willing to use the remedy. Unbelievers 
usually think themselves well informed, particularly 
those whose minds are well stored with other know- 
ledge, when the opposite fact is the truth. Whether 
this is or is not the cause, something does cause them 
to be very backward in the business of research. 



124 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

Their hands hang down, and their nerves are all 
unstrung as soon as vigorous and industrious research 
is proposed. 

Unbelievers inquire not after a remedy for their 
disease. If one is proposed, they turn away. If it is 
urged upon them, and they employ it, it is slowly, 
reluctantly, and perhaps sparingly and imperfectly. 
There are two remedies, or two modes of cure. Men 
may take either. One of these remedies is infallible; 
it succeeds wherever and whenever used. The other 
is almost universally successful, but under certain 
circumstances has been known to fail. We will dis- 
tinguish these two modes of cure by the appellation 
of the powerful and the all-powerful remedy. We 
will leave the second, namely, the all-powerful 
remedy, for the last consideration. Men are more 
averse to the use of this ; they dislike it more than 
they do the first. The powerful is not so certainly 
efficacious as the all-powerful ; but men may be 
more readily induced to give it a trial. Therefore 
we will begin with it, and endeavor to make it plain, 
and to guard against obscurity, or that which may 
cause us to be misapprehended in any particular. 



CURE OF INFIDELITY. 125 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

A REMEDY PROPOSED. 

The powerful remedy. If one of the causes of 
infidelity consists in ignorance, then it is not hard 
for us to understand that the opposite of ignorance 
must be a promising remedy. "We mean ignorance of 
the Bible and of ancient literature connected with the 
Bible. Information almost always cures ; but it is not 
an easy matter to prevail on the unbeliever to labor 
for this knowledge. That knowledge is a powerful 
remedy, the author of these pages has seen tested 
during eighteen years of continued trial. He has 
watched these eighteen years of experimental pro- 
cess, with unusual and uninterrupted solicitude. By 
presenting a history of these years of trial, the doc- 
trines which we deem important can be made plain, 
and misapprehension easily avoided. We may form 
theories, and believe that certain things are practica- 
ble, but our belief is not confirmed entirely, until we 
have tested the matter by long and faithful trial. 

History of eighteen years' observation. As 
soon as the author had escaped from the pit of infi- 
delity, he felt an indescribable solicitude for those 
who are unbelievers. He felt a painful anxiety which 
impelled him to inquire them out, and to cultivate, 
if he could, their acquaintance and friendship. The 
sailor w T ho reaches shore, who looks back and sees the 
companions of his voyage approaching imminent peril. 



126 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

or clinging to the fragments of a shivered vessel, feels 
more for them, because he has been the associate of 
their voyage. Unbelievers will converse with a friend, 
or even with an ordinary acquaintance, without grow- 
ing angry, provided they are alone, and provided the 
approach is made in a plain and affectionate manner. 
Those who are in danger of meeting with insult when 
conversing on the subject of religion, are mostly such 
as begin the conversation before others ; and the dan- 
ger is more or less prominent in proportion to the 
number of those who are present and who compose 
the company. 

Some unbelievers you may prevail upon to read. 
Some will even read industriously, if any one will 
furnish them with books. They will not inquire after 
books, or borrow for -themselves. Others will not 
read, unless it is some work of satire, ridicule, or 
abuse of the Bible. Others will promise a friend 
who may request it, to read, and may even com- 
mence, intending to investigate, but they soon neg- 
lect and forget it. Others, again, may be prevailed 
on to read and inquire after .knowledge, provided the 
friend furnishes the books, makes frequent visits, re- 
minds them of their undertaking, and inquires mi- 
nutely after their advancement. The author, from 
having mingled in their ranks for many years, was 
aware of the fact, that there are more, very many 
more infidels in each town and village of our coun- 
try, than ministers of the gospel or followers of the 
Saviour are in the habit of supposing. He knew that 
many who were looked upon by professors of religion 
as almost Christians, were in reality infidels, but from 



CURB OF IHFIPELIXX. 127 

a variety of considerations, feit disinclined to avow 
it. To inquire out such, to seek the acquaintance of 
others, of all sceptics who might be prevailed on to 
read, and to induce them faithfully to investigate the 
subject of Christianity, has been a business which, 
for the last eighteen years, he has followed with more 
interest than any other. He never, during that time, 
met with a case where an individual made any thing 
like an honest and sincere investigation of the evi- 
dences of Christianity, that he did not conclude by 
saying of the Bible, " This is God's book" two only 
excepted. We will give a history of these two ex- 
ceptions, or seeming exceptions. A faithful narrative 
of actual occurrences will make plain the doctrines 
concerning the cure of infidelity. Each case will 
require an entire chapter. 



128 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

AN EXAMPLE. 

Case 1. A young man of Kentucky received his 
collegiate education at an institution where the stu- 
dents became infidels with great uniformity. He 
was a son of one of the governors of that state. He 
was wealthy, and the hospitality of his board was ex- 
tended with western profusion. I became acquainted 
with him mostly at his own fireside. After our inti- 
macy had continued some time, I ventured to speak 
to him privately and affectionately of eternal exist- 
ence. He told me that his sentiments were deistical, 
and that inasmuch as he did not reverence the Bible, 
while I did, he supposed our conversation with each 
other would be unprofitable. I told him that I only 
wished to speak with him concerning the heavenly 
authority of that book ; that I wished to prevail on 
him to investigate fully the evidences of Christianity ; 
that having once been of his sentiments, I was ac- 
quainted with them in all their length and breadth. 
I told him that without conversing with him minutely 
on the subject, I had no doubt he was ignorant of 
Bible facts and Bible language ; but that, if he dis- 
puted .. _3 want of information, he might easily dis- 
cover it by conversing about the ancient literature 
connected with any part of the holy volume. He 
looked somewhat surprised when I spoke of his being 
destitute of knowledge, but after a time confessed 



CURE OF INFIDELITY. 129 

that there was much history after which he had never 
inquired, and other facts he had forgotten which were 
connected with this subject. He inquired if I would 
permit him to read on both sides of this controversy, 
and looked surprised when I answered him in the af- 
firmative. I told him that I would furnish him with 
as many infidel authors as he chose to read ; that he 
should have an ample assortment, provided he would 
give an honest perusal to books written in answer. 
I offered to lend him any number of the books writ- 
ten against the Bible, provided he would attend faith- 
fully to the other side of the controversy. He seemed 
to wonder at my proposal, but at length said he was 
inclined to read on my side of the question : inasmuch 
as he had examined his own, he was willing to begin 
with the advocates of Christianity.^ He asked what 

* The reason why I have always heen willing to lend to 
an unbeliever any number of infidel books, provided he will 
engage to hear honestly a full reply, will be more fully ex- 
plained in another part of this work. It is not amiss, how- 
ever, to give a brief statement of the case in passing. It is 
as follows : If an unbeliever discovers that his favorite or 
champion author penned falsehood after falsehood, page after 
page, it will begin to awaken his fears and his suspicions, so 
as to incline him towards more faithful research. True, if he 
reads one side only, all will be received as smooth and plau- 
sible, unless he is a historian. But if he reads the faith- 
ful answer, he cannot avoid seeing, now and then, history to 
which he may refer ; and if he refers to it, must also dis- 
cover the want of verity belonging to his leader. That those 
who have hated Christianity should have written against it, 
is not strange ; but that they have made untrue statements 
continually, is readily discovered by all who are not afraid to 
hear both sides. When this unmingled and uninterrupted 
falsehood is detected, it weakens the confidence the reader had 
in the fabricators. 

6* 



130 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

I would consider a full investigation of the subject. 
I told him that I had no doubt he would be altered in 
his belief before he had read half as far as a full in- 
vestigation ; that I never had known one man who 
was not convinced of the truth of the Bible by the 
time he had given the subject only a moderate re- 
search. I told him, that out of the one hundred 
authors who had written for and against the holy 
book, I would send him six or eight only of the first I 
could procure ; that after he had read these, I wished 
him to read the Bible with the notes of some com- 
mentator, that he might not be ignorant of the Bible 
itself any longer ; and that if he would pursue this 
course of reading, I would be satisfied. 

I went on to tell him what I must here pause in 
my narrative long enough to tell the reader. An infi- 
del, when he begins to read on the evidences of Chris- 
tianity, becomes more doubting and sceptical than 
ever, or more confirmed in his unbelief. This con- 
tinues to increase during the former part of the re- 
search; but let him persevere in a thorough investi- 
gation, and he begins to have a view of the truth, and 
is at last delivered altogether from the thraldom of 
delusion. The facts are accurately pictured by the 
words of the much worn expression concerning the 
Pierian spring ; the same waters that at first intoxi- 
cate, will sober again if drank plentifully. Many who 
begin to read, after glancing through one or two vol- 
umes hastily, lay them aside more entangled in error 
than they were, and thinking within themselves that 
they have read the strongest arguments that can be 
brought forward in favor of divine inspiration. Their 



CURE OF INFIDELITY. 131 

condition is of course more deplorable than it was. 
Others do hastily examine a few volumes, and are not 
well enough informed to be able to understand clearly, 
and fairly weigh the arguments of the author ; these 
may desist before they have mastered the subject. 
Others may need a second or third perusal of the same 
pages before they can clearly view and appropriate the 
contents. Such may fancy that they have examined 
the subject, when they really have not. But of those 
who have read six or eight authors on that subject, 
calmly, attentively, impartially, industriously, and re- 
newedly if necessary, I have never known one who did 
not cast away his infidelity. If any one should ask 
why we request the unbeliever to read many authors 
on the same subject, the evidences of Christianity, 
we answer, that no two minds take the same course 
in writing on this subject. The arguments and evi- 
dences could not be condensed or abridged into a score 
of large volumes. Of course each writer is expected 
merely to select such ideas as strike him most for- 
cibly. True, I have never read the author on the 
evidences of Christianity who did not seem to me in 
some one way or another to establish the position, 
This is Go$s book ; but the further we push our re- 
searches, meditations, and inquiries, the more readily 
can we proceed, and the more capable are we of com- 
prehending additional research. The case is by no 
means an uncommon one, where a reader lays down 
an author on this subject with disappointment and 
dissatisfaction, finding in it, as seems to him, very 
little excellence of any kind. Twelve months after, 
upon taking up casually the same volume, he is aston- 



132 CAUSE AND CUKE OF INFIDELITY. 

islied at a thought there which he had not noticed 
before. He proceeds, and many of the arguments 
there appear as clear and distinct as a stream of 
electricity over a dark cloud. The reason of this is, 
that his mind is in a condition better to perceive, 
weigh, and prize the argument. His mind becomes 
thus better capable while reading other things on the 
same subject in other writers. Men love darkness 
rather than light ; hence it is that many unbelievers 
are not capable of understanding and appreciating 
one half they read on this subject ; indeed none are, 
until they pursue the investigation to some extent. 

The young man of whom I have been writing, in- 
quired what authors on the evidences of Christianity 
I chiefly recommended. I told him that I had a 
choice, but it was not so marked as to fix on given 
volumes indispensably ; that I did not fear the result, 
provided he did not stop short of the given number, 
although he might peruse those productions the most 
readily obtained, or the first procured. He told me 
that he would read six or eight of the first books I 
should send him, and the Bible afterwards with 
Scott's notes. The following are, as nearly as I can 
remember, the books which I obtained and sent or 
carried to him, one as soon as he had finished the 
other. Alexander's Evidences, Paley's Evidences, 
"Watson's Answer to Paine, Jews' Letters to Yoltaire, 
Home's Introduction, vol. 1, and Faber's Difficulties 
of Infidelity. Before he was entirely through with 
these books, he told me, with a serious face and voice, 
that he had something to tell me of himself that was 
indeed singular : " I am," said he, " in a strange con- 



CURE OF INFIDELITY. 133 

dition. I will confess to you, frankly and honestly, 
that these authors have met, answered, and fairly 
overturned every difficulty and every objection which 
I had mustered and opposed to the Bible as being 
from G-od. Furthermore, I do acknowledge that 1 
have found arguments in favor of its divine authority 
so plain and so momentous that I am unable to meet 
or to answer them ; and yet I do not believe. I cannot 
and I do not believe the Bible /" I had then a secret 
hope that he would still continue his course of read- 
ing. Old and long habits of infidelity have a ten- 
dency to hang upon us like settled diseases of peri- 
odical recurrence. But I did not speak to him sooth- 
ingly, and I dare not say any thing beyond naked 
truth, even should it sound harshly. I told him that 
the defenders of Christianity had proved its truth, 
and that was all they had expected or attempted. I 
told him that God had left on record facts enough to 
evince that the Scriptures were divinely inspired ; to 
prove this, and to advise obedience, was the mode of 
his dealing with men. " Compulsory measures," I 
added, " we never read of his using ; and man him- 
self, even wicked man, would rather that his free 
agency should not be taken away, and would com- 
plain at the thought or expectation of its being de- 
stroyed. These writers have proved their position, 
and you do not believe. Now you may and can walk 
the entire road to ruin, as a round rock can roll down 
hill ; because it is one of the truths of the Bible, and 
one of the first truths taught in it, that man is a 
fallen creature. If you are not one of the fallen, the 
Scriptures are not true. If you are one of them, 



134 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

then you cannot by nature receive truth so aptly and 
to eagerly as falsehood. If you are ever saved, it 
will require an effort and a struggle. Then, for the 
sake of undying existence, continue the labor which 
you have commenced. Go on and read many other 
books, a hundred of them. Notice the truth proved 
a thousand ways and a thousand times. But begin 
to pray. Ask the Spirit that made your spirit to 
cause truth to have its proper work of killing false- 
hood in your heart and soul." 

I never saw him afterwards ; he went the way of 
all the earth. I never heard from his state of mind 
afterwards, whether he continued to read or not. 
From his conduct during our last interview, I have 
some hope, which I would not sell, that he may have 
continued his research and his meditations on these 
things. I have a hope from which I would not part, 
when I remember how candidly he confessed it when 
his argument was truly prostrated, that he may, be- 
fore his departure, have asked the Maker of suns to 
be his Redeemer. This is the history of one case 
where the powerful remedy, sober investigation, may 
have failed to cure, for aught I was able afterwards 
to learn. 



CURE OF INFIDELITY. 135 



CHAPTER XXIX. 



A SECOND EXAMPLE. 



Case 2. I had an acquaintance in days of boy- 
hood with an amiable young man, who was liberally 
educated. After sixteen years of separation, we met 
again. He had become thorough in his profession, 
the law, by unceasing practice. He was an unbe- 
liever, and the society with which he had commonly 
mingled at the bar, was of that description. After 
some long and friendly interviews, he promised me to 
read on the evidences of Christianity, and I engaged 
to provide him with books. I had stronger hopes of 
success in this case, from the fact that the law was 
his profession. I do not know why it is so, but it is 
the result of eighteen years' experience, that law- 
yers, of all those with whom I have examined, exer- 
cise the clearest judgment while investigating the 
evidences of Christianity. It is the business of a 
physician's life to watch for evidence and indication 
of disease, sanity, or of change ; therefore I am una- 
ble to account for the fact, yet so it is, that the man 
of law excels. He has, when examining the evidences 
of the Bible's inspiration, shown more common-sense 
in weighing proof and appreciating argument, where 
argument really existed, than any other class of men 
I have ever observed. It is no easy matter to prevail 
upon these men to think about eternal things. They 
float along on the surface of secular schemes and 



136 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

political turmoil ; they have little time, they think, 
for any thing but business, and they look surprised 
for a moment when they are told that they are igno- 
rant of Bible literature ; but when they do read thor- 
oughly, and examine faithfully, they are better than 
ordinary judges of what is weakness or what is force 
in reason. 

Concerning the man of whom I have been writ- 
ing, I am unable to remember distinctly the authors 
he read, or how many were furnished him. I never 
saw him afterwards, but so arranged that certain 
books were put into his hand. Of one volume I re- 
member that I heard distinctly and accurately the 
result of its perusal. The book was the first volume 
of Home's Introduction. A brother of the bar came 
upon him just as he was finishing the concluding 
page. This friend, knowing the nature of the study 
which had employed him, being himself a sceptic, 
asked as to his impression concerning its contents. 
While shutting the book slowly and gravely, he made 
the following reply, and said no more : " Were I a 
juror, and sworn the ordinary oath, and were you, as 
one of the parties to establish just this amount of 
evidence, nor more, nor less, I should declare, by my 
verdict, that your point was proved." I never heard 
from him again. When he died, his mind was im- 
paired ; but I have not been entirely without hope, 
that perhaps his reading was not altogether in vain. 

These cases are the only two remembered through 
long observation, where, after ample research and full 
inquiry, a total cure did not seem to be the result. 
Many will promise to read, but will never perform. 



CURE OF INFIDELITY. 137 

Others will begin with considerable earnestness, but 
soon desist. Others will pass on as with a task, and 
understanding the discussion with difficulty, find the 
labor very toilsome, and after a while begin to shun 
it. But there are others, thank God, who believe 
that it would be well for them to know with some 
degree of certainty, whether they are or are not to 
live for ever. They seem resolved to find out either 
the truth or falsity of the pages of inspiration, even 
should it cost them some labor. When they begin, 
if they find much of the subject dark, they reperuse 
the same treatises, or they ask after other authors on 
the same points, until they are capable of compre- 
hending. Of such an effort as is made by these, I 
have never known but one termination. That was a 
perfect cure. They have said uniformly, after a 
thorough study, " This is the book of God." 



133 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

AVERSION TO COMMENTARIES. 

Ocr natural tendency towards falsehood, or the 
secret suggestions of the evil one, often causes men to 
object against the perusal of notes on the Bible. The 
sophism used as an excuse and subterfuge in this 
case is often plausible. ""We wish to judge for our- 
selves," say they; "commentators dispute between 
each other, but we will read and decide on our own 
account. 5 ' Those who speak thus obtain informa- 
tion, generally speaking, from no source whatever. 
Dear reader, there are some Bible facts concerning 
which men do not dispute. Again, doctrinal con- 
troversy you may neglect, if you choose. Notice it 
not, if you are so disposed ; but neglect not certain 
knowledge which is within your reach, and which 
you must acquire at the risk of your soul. Men do 
not refuse to read the notes of others on chemistry, 
astronomy, or philosophy, because writers have dis- 
puted here ; but each author is willing to avail him- 
self of the assistance of others — to use that which 
may seem to him valuable, and cast the rest away. 

We have determined, dear friend, to give you a 
few plain examples of the value of notes on the Bible, 
that you may avail yourself of the toil of others, and 
see that you need their labors. Commentators can 
point you to facts most valuable, and such as you 



CURE OF INFIDELITY. 139 

may see as soon as named, but such as you would 
not have noticed had they not been remarked. The 
first case we give by way of illustration, shall be one 
which happened in connection with the seventeenth 
chapter of Revelation. And furthermore, dear reader, 
this chapter may be one of interest to you, for it speaks 
of the events of eighteen centuries. It is a chapter 
which concerns you much, for it also describes cer- 
tain political events of Europe which are taking place 
at the present time, and it goes on to mention some 
affairs which are to happen in approaching years. 
Thus you may receive a double benefit by noticing 
the verses of this chapter. They exhibit the neces- 
sity of commentaries for the ignorant ; they also in- 
form us what the Lord has recently done, and shortly 
will accomplish. Lest you should fail to read the 
passage named, we will transcribe verse after verse 
as needed, so that each section shall be on the page 
fairly before us. 

" And there came one of the seven angels which 
had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto 
me, Come hither ; I will show unto thee the judgment 
of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters ; 
with whom the kings of the earth have committed 
fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have 
been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. 
So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilder- 
ness : and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet-colored 
beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads 
and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in pur- 
ple and scarlet-color, and decked with gold and pre- 
cious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her 



140 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

hand full of abominations and filthiness of her forni- 
cation." Rev. 17 : 1-4. 

A man read this chapter who had been an infidel. 
He had often read it and heard it read, like thousands 
of others, without attaching any meaning to the 
words. He did not observe, until he took up a vol- 
ume of Scott's Family Bible, that this was a part of 
Scripture which explains itself, and is of course as 
plain as others, or perhaps more so ; for when the 
Lord interprets emblematic language, he makes it as 
plain as any words known to us will permit. He 
had read history enough to have noticed the truth of 
the following remarks without assistance, but he did 
not observe the declaration of the last verse until it 
was pointed out to him. The last verse is, " And the 
woman which thou sawest is that great city, which 
reigneth over the kings of the earth." This reader 
was well enough acquainted with history to know 
what city reigned over the kings of the earth when 
Domitian was on the imperial throne, when John 
was in Patmos, for a long time before, and for many 
centuries after. There is no difference between un- 
believers or Christians, as it regards the city that 
stood on the Tiber, clothed in purple, and which has 
been there ever since. "We may here say to the 
reader, who may have been in the habit of glancing 
over pages of the Bible and noticing nothing, " Friend, 
if you do not know distinctly and certainly what city 
did reign over the kings of the earth in St. John's 
time, you had better not only inquire fully, but keep 
it before your recollection, together with several other 
particulars, for they may concern you more nearly in 



CURE OF INFIDELITY. 141 

the present day than you suppose." The man of 
whom we have been writing, who was startled on 
reading part of a commentary on this chapter, had 
read enough to remember something of the red cloth, 
and purple, and gold, and scarlet, and gaudy trap- 
pings, and sumptuous externals of both pagan and 
modern Rome ; but while reading the following 
words from Scott's notes, he began to notice and 
remember historic pictures more distinctly: "The 
angel carried John in the spirit— that is, under the 
influence of the prophetic spirit he seemed to be con- 
veyed into the wilderness — and he there saw a wom- 
an seated on a scarlet-colored beast. This woman 
was the emblem of the church of Rome ; and the 
beast, of the temporal power by which it has been 
supported ; and the latter was full of names of blas- 
phemy, which we have had repeated occasion to 
mention." Almost any blasphemous title which we 
could fancy, has been assumed there : His Holiness — 
Infallibility — King of kings — Christ's Vicegerent — 
Vice-G-od — yea, even, G-od on the earth, etc. " The 
woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet-color, for 
these have always been the distinguishing colors of 
popes and cardinals, as well as of the Roman emper- 
ors and senators ; nay, by a kind of infatuation, the 
mules and horses on which they rode have been 
covered with scarlet cloth ; as if they were deter- 
mined to answer this description, and even literally 
to ride on a scarlet-colored beast. The woman was 
also most superbly decorated with gold and jewels ; 
and who can sufficiently describe the pride, grandeur, 
and magnificence of the church of Rome in her vest- 



142 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

ments and ornaments of every kind ? Even papists 
have gloried in the superiority of their church in this 
magnificence, to ancient Rome when at the height of 
her prosperity. This appears in all things relating 
to their public worship, and in the papal court, even 
beyond what can be conceived ; and external pomp 
attaches men, attaches carnal men to a religion 
which interests and gratifies them, while they despise 
the simplicity of spiritual worship." Then follows a 
quotation from Addison : " This as much surpassed 
my expectation as other sights have fallen short of 
it. Silver can scarce find an admittance, and gold 
itself looks but poorly among such an incredible num- 
ber of precious stones." These are the facts which 
the infidel had known, but had never applied. After 
reading thus far, he felt some curiosity to look at 
several additional verses. He read the following 
w T ords, verse 6: "And I saw the woman drunken 
with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of 
the martyrs of Jesus ; and when I saw her, I icon- 
dered with great admiration" The infidel on read- 
ing this, was ready enough to ask, and to ask aloud, 
"Wherefore should John wonder? What could he 
wonder at ? After he had actually lived through 
the persecution under which Paul was beheaded at 
Rome — the gardens of Nero illuminated by the Chris- 
tians, who were covered with inflammable substances, 
and set on fire where they stood with a stake under 
each chin to keep them erect as a torch, until, in the 
language of one of the many Latin poets, Juvenal, 
who then lived, t they made a long stream of blood 
and sulphur on the ground.' When John well knew, 



CURE OP INFII)ELITY\ 143 

when he had lived to see that Rome would become 
drunken with Christian blood, as readily as a serpent 
would bite those within its reach, how could he mar- 
vel ? Why should he wonder, when the angel was 
showing him for days to come, only that which he 
had actually seen in the months that were past ? He 
not only told us of his surprise, as though it had been 
something new, but he says, When I saw her, I won- 
dered with great admiration." 

After reading some further, he discovered that it 
was not pagan Rome, but Christian Rome, so called, 
which the angel was showing to the apostle. The 
bloody scenes of pagan Rome which had passed in 
St. John's lifetime, were gone ; but when he looked 
forward into days then to come, and saw that which 
claimed to be the church and the metropolis of the 
Christian world, and the followers of the Man of 
Calvary, torturing the followers of the Saviour more 
cruelly, if possible, and shedding blood more profusely 
than heathen Rome ever did, it is not strange that 
he wondered ivith great admiration. 

By this time the unbeliever felt awakened to fur- 
ther reading. Yerses 7, 8 : " And the angel said unto 
me, Wherefore didst thou marvel ? I will tell thee 
the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that 
carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten 
horns. The beast that thou sawest, was, and is not ; 
and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go 
into perdition : and they that dwell on the earth shall 
wonder, (whose names were not written in the book 
of life from the foundation of the world,) when they 
behold the beast that was, and is not. and vet is." 



144 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

When the Spirit of inspiration is about to place before 
us the picture of a bloody and cruel power, any can- 
did mind sees at once that a ferocious wild beast is 
the most brief and impressive representation. "Who- 
ever has closely searched, has discovered that on the 
page of prophecy a wild beast is the emblem of a 
bloody, cruel, and tyrannical nation. The unbeliever 
remembered the fact that Rome had been very bloody 
in her persecutions. He remembered that she did 
actually cease to be so when converted to Christian- 
ity, and that she did again become thus bloody and 
cruel when she degenerated into popery. He knew 
the plain history that the scarlet beast was, and then 
was not, and then was again; but he had not re- 
membered, and noted, and applied these things, until 
he read the following remarks: "A beast is the 
emblem of an idolatrous and oppressive empire ; the 
Roman empire ivas the beast under the pagan em- 
perors : it ceased to be so when it became Christian, 
with reference to which the angel says, by way of 
anticipation, ' it is not? Yet it would afterwards 
' ascend out of the abyss :' that is, when the anti- 
christian empire became idolatrous and persecuting, 
and the dragon gave his power to the beast, it seemed 
to arise out of the sea, the tempestuous state of the 
nations ; but it was, in fact, from hell, being Satan's 
grand scheme for opposing the gospel, and therefore 
after a time it would go into perdition, and be de- 
stroyed finally and for ever." Quotation from New- 
ton. " The empire was idolatrous under the heathen 
emperors,' and then ceased to be so under the Chris- 
tian emperors, and then became idolatrous again 



CURE OF INFIDELITY. 145 

under the Roman pontiffs, and hath so continued ever 
since. But in this last form it shall go into perdi- 
tion ; it shall not, as it did before, cease for a time 
and then revive again, but shall be destroyed for 
ever." 

After reading these words, our inquirer remem- 
bered with startling interest, that this outline of his- 
tory was to be confirmed by facts, or the angel would 
fail in his representations. He remembered that, 
when the apostle lived, and afterwards when early 
writers were disputing concerning the book of Reve- 
lation, the following statement must have been made, 
namely, " If Rome does not cease to be a cruel, per- 
secuting 1 city, dropping the character of the beast, 
and then resume it again to retain it until destroyed, 
these verses are incorrect." But he remembered that 
seventeen hundred years were now passed since the 
death of St. John, and that Rome did not continue a 
pagan, bloody city. There was an intermission, a 
time during which she was not the beast, but the 
meekness of Christian love was visible there. This 
did not happen to continue ; but when the beast was 
resumed, its bloody character returned, and still con- 
tinued. 

He then felt some curiosity to see what other 
statements were prophetically made. Yerse 9 : " And 
here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven 
heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sit- 
ieth." He was aware of the reason why in ancient 
days Rome was called the seven-hilled city ; and he 
needed no commentator to tell him that the seven 
eminences on which she was built are there yet. 

Cause and Cure. 7 



146 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

Verse 10 : "And there are seven kings: five are fallen, 
and one is, and the other is not yet come ; and when 
he cometh, he must continue a short space." He had 
read English law enough to understand what was 
meant by the expression, " The king never diesP By 
the w T ord king they do not mean the man, but the 
kingly authority. In a monarchy, the king and his 
power are used for each other, or interchangeably. 
It was not hard for him, then, to understand how and 
why the word kings stood for forms of government, 
or successions of rulers. It is not merely on the pro- 
phetic page that the word king is found to mean thus, 
but it is in the book of temporal statutes ; and in the 
mind of the illiterate peasant, where kings rule, this 
tenth verse gives an outline of the history of Rome, 
much abridged but very bright. Those young per- 
sons who wish to become historians, but who com- 
plain of their memories, would do well to recollect 
this verse ; so long as they recollect its words, a very 
striking profile of history will not be forgotten. The 
unbeliever who was interested with this chapter, and 
of whom we have been writing, remembered very dis- 
tinctly, as soon as he saw it noticed, that five kings 
or forms of government had fallen or passed away 
after the building of that city. Kings were gone, 
consuls were gone, dictators had passed away, so 
had decemvirs, and so had military tribunes. But 
the angel said, "one is." The emperors reigned 
while John had the vision. But if six had then actu- 
ally existed, was the angel telling of only two more 
kinds of governments ? According to his interpreta- 
tion, were we to look for no more than two in so long 



CURE OF INFIDELITY. 147 

a time, when six had already been seen in that city ? 
The answer is, only tivo. And one of these was to 
be of the seven, and the other was to continue only a 
short time when it did come. Rome was under the 
jurisdiction of the exarchate of Ravenna, but not 
long. The space was short. Ever since, it has been 
under the rule of the pope. Verse 11: "And the 
beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and 
is of the seven, and goeth into perdition." Reader, 
the pope is a spiritual ruler in Rome, but you have 
often heard that he has a temporal authority also. 
He is of the seven, rely upon it. This beast was the 
Roman government in its last form. That form is 
papal, for there are no emperors there now. The 
going into perdition is to follow after a time. The 
unbeliever began to feel great astonishment that an 
abridgment of history, contained in so few words, 
and pointing at centuries that w r ere to come when the 
page was written, reaching so far, and taking place 
so accurately, had excited no notice in the world. 
He read the next verses, 12, 13: "And the ten horns 
which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received 
no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one 
hour with the beast. These have one mind, and shall 
give their power and strength unto the beast." Read- 
er, you have often heard and spoken of the ten king- 
doms of Europe. They did not exist when John 
wrote, and they were not to begin to exist until the 
pope should begin to rule, for they were to have their 
power at one and the same time with the beast, dur- 
ing one and the same hour. If you had lived several 
hundred years after the death of St. John, and had 



148 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

seen the pope or the eighth power begin to rule in 
Rome, you might have known then, not merely that 
ten kingdoms would be made of the fragments of 
that empire, but that ten should arise of such as 
would support the pope's authority. It is only the 
man who has read modern history, who can see the 
full force of these words as he reads them, " These 
have one mind, and shall give their power and strength 
unto the beast." They did indeed ! And in all the 
changes, revolutions, and overturnings of things in 
Europe, for more than a thousand years, there still 
were somewhere near ten powers, horns, who ruled 
at the same hour with the pope, and gave him their 
strength. Reader, it has been common for writers, 
when about to describe the multitude at large, to -take 
for their emblem a wave of the sea, which rises, and 
foams, and roars, and sinks away to rise no more. 
This mode of description they have taken from the 
holy book. On the page of prophecy it is the figure 
used uniformly, we believe. Verse 15 : "And he saith 
unto me, The ivaters which thou sawest, where the 
whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and na- 
tions, and tongues." After the unbeliever had read 
the sixteenth verse, he fell into a train of reflection 
which, dear reader, it might profit you to imitate. 
Verse 16: "And the ten horns which thou sawest 
upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall 
make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, 
and burn her with fire." His thoughts were such as 
these : 

" These ten horns were, it seems, according to 
verse thirteen, to favor the whore, all of them. But 



CURE OF INFIDELITY. 149 

from this other verse, it seems they are after a time 
to begin to hate and to impoverish her. England has 
long since withheld her revenues. France did not 
begin to withhold or to impoverish her in any way 
until she, France, became an infidel nation. But have 
all the ten, all of them to waste her ? So it states. 
And indeed two more, Spain and Portugal, have al- 
ready half broken their bonds of allegiance. These, 
as France has done, and as Austria and others prob- 
ably will do, as soon as they discovered that the 
priests had been teaching nothing but imposture for 
centuries, not only cast away their old faith, but the 
Bible along with it ! Is not atheism, or something 
resembling it, the natural outlet or termination of 
a false Christianity ? The work of making desolate 
and naked has certainly been going on long. It is 
becoming more and more distinct. Recent events 
make it still more marked. But how is this ? What 
is this I see, and what is this I hear? 'And shall 
eat her flesh, and burn her with fire !' This is to 
come yet. "Will it really be brought to pass? If 
eighteen hundred years of events have fitted the pro- 
phetic declaration so accurately, it is most likely that 
the last items also will not fail." 

Reader, we have said that perhaps you would do 
well to meditate thus seriously. We will offer to you 
one reason for this advice. As sure as that burning, 
described in the eighteenth chapter of Revelation, 
ever comes to pass, so certainly some other things 
will take place which bear the same date with it, and 
which concern you. There are many things which 
cannot be very far before us, and which will come 



150 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

unexpectedly upon those who continue contentedly 
ignorant of God's book ; and they are of pressing 
import in the case of those who now live. "We know 
that there are countless thousands, whose ignorance 
is so extensive and entire in sacred things, that even 
a plain verse of the inspired page appears dark to 
them ; these, of course, will think other parts unin- 
telligible to any one. We can only say to such, be- 
gin to practise the precepts ; for these all understand, 
and they all speak lies to their Creator who say they 
do not. Read, and read on. If it is dark at first, 
continue and accept the aid of a commentary. It 
will not be long ere you will understand enough, such 
as the chapter we have read, to make you wish for 
more. 

"We must give other instances, showing that we 
may be reminded of an instructive and beautiful fact, 
without copying or obeying others. We may have 
pointed out to us in all the sciences, and in all the 
branches of earthly knowledge, most precious truth, 
and be benefited, without asking others to think for 
us, or imitating improperly their faith and views. 
But we will first devote a chapter to the history of a 
reading infidel. 



CURE OF INFIDELITY. 151 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

CASE OF AN INFIDEL WHO BEGAN TO READ. 

There was a merchant of East Tennessee belong- 
ing to that class of men calling themselves Deists, 
who increased much in number immediately after 
our revolutionary struggle. All of them advocated 
morality of deportment, and few of them practised 
it ; but this one of whom we are writing did, and his 
walk was exemplary. Truth he advocated and prac- 
tised. Any defect in this virtue seen in an acquain- 
tance, was enough to forfeit his esteem ever after. 
Dishonesty or any deceptive dealing had his unmiti- 
gated scorn. He had, in short, taken many of the 
Bible precepts without knowing where they came 
from, and practised them with unceasing vigilance. 
He would not believe that the favorite principles of 
his practice came originally from the Bible ; for he 
who scorned the very name of Bible acted on these 
rules, while many church-members, professed lovers 
of the Bible, violated them shamefully. So long as 
the conduct of many professors near him would by no 
means compare with his own, he was not likely either 
to give credit to the Bible for what principle his 
mother, or others for her, had taught him from it, or 
to become uneasy at his condition, or convicted of sin. 
His honor, hospitality, patriotism, benevolence, and 
other excellences made him a favorite with the world. 
But if the world praised or admired him, how much 



152 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

of an idol must he have been in the eyes of his chil- 
dren as they grew up. On their education he spared 
no pains. For their happiness in life, he advanced 
all that good example, advice, money, vigilance, or 
unceasing parental kindness could do. His children 
loved him, as they might be expected to love such a 
father, who possessed both amiableness and ardor of 
affections. They grew up, hearing as early as they 
were capable of hearing, and knowing ever after, that 
he smiled with scorn at the very name of Christ. 
Part of the result may be anticipated. His eldest 
son was an infidel. He would not condemn Chris- 
tianity with that vehement confidence which belonged 
to older men, for he professed more modesty than 
many young persons who are reared as he was. He 
would even confess that many amiable men, who had 
read more than ever he had, did reverence the Bible ; 
but he did not believe. He would even confess that 
investigation would not be amiss for him on this 
subject ; but enjoying the amusements of life as 
he did, there was no likelihood that he ever would go 
through the toil of a faithful research. His father 
had succeeded in teaching him excellent moral prin- 
ciples, to the extent which he himself practised them, 
and he was crying peace to his conscience with but 
little cessation, if any. It was at length observed, 
that when professors of religion acted amiss, and 
he spoke in disapprobation of their conduct, there 
was more detestation of countenance, and more bit- 
terness thrown into the tone of his voice, than usual. 
He began to notice their ill deserts more frequently 
and more readily than those belonging to other men. 



CURE OF INFIDELITY. 153 

The hill down which he was sliding, was plain 
enough to the eye of those who know something 
of the human heart, and of the different avenues 
by which men can reach ruin. The Lord, we be- 
lieve, had it in view that he should not descend that 
declivity.^ 

He had a young wife called away from him by a 
slow and lingering disease. She had time and mind 
to think over for ever and its endless concomitants. 
Before she bade him farewell, she exacted from him. 
a promise that he would read the Bible through, with 
the notes of Scott, Scott's Family Bible. One of 
the choice rules in which he had been educated, and 
upon which his whole system was built, was never 
to forfeit his word. After her departure, nothing 
short of impracticability could have prevented the 
fulfilment of his promise, should the task be agree- 
able or disagreeable. He began, and read a portion 
every day. As he proceeded, his difficulties and his 
objections were such as are commonly made under 
like circumstances. Strong minds, or vivid intel- 
lects, strange to tell, in this research will stumble 
over cavils ridiculous for their imbecility,! such as 

* Some members of the church who lived near there, be- 
lieved that the reason why his life was altered is as follows : 
He had a mother who often consecrated an hour in prayer, 
when none were present but herself and her Creator. They 
believe that the Man of Calvary can do whatever he pleases, 
and that if any one loves him, he frequently does choose that 
they shall have almost any thing for which they ask. None 
but his obedient children, however, know this fact by experi- 
ence. 

t One of the mountains in the path of this young unbeliever 
was the objection, that we are not told in the narrative how 

7# 



154 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

in after-days they can scarcely believe, and did they 
not know it to be so, never would believe could ever 
have engaged their thoughts. He had not finished 
the work before he had made up his mind, slowly 
and deliberately, but entirely. He said, in the hear- 
ing of a circle of friends, " I believe the Scriptures to 
be the work of inspiration." His father asked him 
with surprise, and with a smile somewhat sarcastic, 
"And so you believe that book the word of Grod?" 
" I do, father," said he; "I do indeed believe it sin- 
cerely." Reader, one item of this case points out a 
truth which is important. They do well who note 
and forget it not. There was a friend near, who 
heard this declaration, and who rejoiced on the fol- 
lowing account. He had long felt concern for the 
immortal welfare of the young infidel. While con- 
versing together on the subject of religion, the latter 
had often said, " If I believed the Bible, as Christians 
say they do, I would certainly obey it. I would 
scarcely think or care for any thing else, save that 
eternity which they expect, and that judgment which 
they wait for." If his friend humbly replied to him 
that so we might all suppose, but we were besotted 
by sin and debased by the fall, and that the Bible 
teaches of a state of soul belonging to us all, which 
will lead us to slumber on the edge of death, etc. ; 
adding, " Perhaps, if you did believe, you would 
move on much as you do now" — he was answered, 
" Do you think I would risk unending darkness and 

Jacob found out that the purposes of his brother Esau were 
evil towards him. A trivial objection, if well founded ; but in 
Genesis 27 : 42, the desired information is distinctly given. 



CURE OF INFIDELITY. 155 

misery, while my Creator was offering me unending 
peace and splendor for the bare acceptance ? No ; 
I never would be such a fool : if every other man on 
earth was negligent, I do assure you I would not be, 
with such a prize as that at stake." 

Some months after he had made up his mind 
concerning the verity of the holy book, he was called 
on by his friend, and the following conversation, in 
substance, took place between them. Friend : You 
say that you read some in your Bible every day ; how 
does it appear to you now ? Answer : I find some- 
thing new and interesting almost every time I open 
it. It is a singularly instructive book. Friend: I 
rejoice that you read, and I rejoice that it is not to 
you what it once was, a book of tiresome insipidity, 
awakening your aversion. Answer : The fault was 
in me, not in the book. I was too ignorant to enjoy 
it. Friend: Yours is only a kind of literary enjoy- 
ment in reading that book, for I do not see your life 
changed since your belief in it. You once thought 
that you would not risk an endless hell half an hour, 
that you would not be contented a moment without 
a title to heaven, if you believed God had ordered 
the writing of that volume. Answer : That is an- 
other proof of the truth of the Bible. I am going on 
stupidly day after day. I never would have believed, 
no matter who informed me of it, that I should have 
acted as I am now acting, and I know that we are 
not thus infatuated in other things. We do not act 
with this mad imprudence in any thing else. It 
must be that sin has some strange effect upon the 
soul. 



156 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

For the sake of those who expect to reach heaven, 
we add one sentence here, which others need not read 
unless inclined. It will be pleasing to some, and it 
does not take us long to state, that this young man, 
after a time, did obtain the Christian's hope. He 
hopes to see the author of a certain commentary on 
the right-hand side of a throne that is high and 
tvhite. "We should love to see them meet ; but it 
will not be the only joyful interview. 



CURE OF INFIDELITY. 157 

CHAPTER XXXII. 

USE OF COMMENTARIES. 

There was a man who had undertaken to make 
himself acquainted with history. He had read until 
he knew something of the different ages of the world, 
and also of the habits, manners, and fortunes of many 
nations of the earth. 

It was stated in the works which he had seen, 
that the main force of the Saracens consisted in their 
cavalry. These armies of horsemen were, in some 
respects, such as the earth has not seen since, nor 
was the like witnessed before. The yellow silk tur- 
ban around each head, when their long extended ranks 
were drawn out in the sunshine at a distance, caused 
them to appear as though every individual was a king 
wearing a splendid crown. Their faces were some- 
what remarkable. The Arabian countenance has 
been noted by travellers for its haughtiness or feroc- 
ity. Their long hair streamed on the gale, like that 
of the American Indians. Their African teeth, long 
and white, and coming to a point, made their visages 
more striking still. Their breastplates were mostly 
iron. But when they charged at almost the entire 
speed of the eastern horse, when their steel scabbards 
struck against their metallic trappings, when the feet 
of twice ten thousand chargers struck the earth in 
this headlong rush, it is said that the echo of their 
impetuosity can scarcely be fancied. Reader, sup- 



158 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

pose a man who has known these particulars, takes 
up the notes of a commentator on the ninth chapter 
of the Revelation of St. John, and there finds it stated 
that the ravages of a certain army were described so 
many hundred years beforehand, and then reads the 
seventh, eighth, and ninth verses ; what army would 
you imagine he would think was pictured? 

Verses 7-9: "And the shapes of the locusts were 
like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their 
heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their 
faces were as the faces of men. And they had hair 
as the hair of ivomen, and their teeth were as the 
teeth of lions. And they had breastplates, as it were 
breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings 
was as the sound of chariots of many horses running 
to battle." 

The individual, we have said, had read some his- 
tory, but had never noted its application to this pas- 
sage, until he was reminded of several items by the 
commentary. Was there any reason why he should 
not be struck with these facts, because they were 
brought to his recollection by the pen of another ? 
He felt his curiosity so much awakened, that he de- 
termined to read other verses of the same chapter. 
Verse 4: "And it was commanded them that they 
should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any 
green thing, neither any tree ; but only those men 
who have not the seal of God in their foreheads." 

He did not know how to understand this verse 
well. Indeed, it seemed to him that its interpreta- 
tion must be difficult. If locusts are not allowed to 
eat any thing green, what shall they eat ? When 



CURE OF INFIDELITY. 169 

we remember that it is their natural food, it strikes 
us as a strange sound to hear the oriental locust for- 
bidden to eat the leaves of the tree, or the grass of 
the earth. The commentator reminded him of what 
he might read again in history, and when it was 
called to his recollection, it struck him as a fact ex- 
ceedingly interesting. It was a rule of those armies, 
wide as were their ravages, cruel as were their dev- 
astations, to destroy no grain-field, to cut down no 
fruit-tree, and to waste nothing which constituted 
the sustenance of man. That this should have been 
the general order of the ferocious devastators was 
very singular. Reader, you could not count the 
number of interesting facts and incidents of this 
nature, connected with almost every verse of the 
prophetic or historic part of that beautiful and won- 
derful book. Men grow up in ignorance, and special 
ignorance of these things, not only because they love 
any amusement, or any worldly pursuit, in the morn- 
ing of life, more than they do pious meditations ; but 
also because their fathers and mothers see to it that 
they are taught more at school, that more toil and 
painful industry is expended in making plain any 
science, or part of a science, art, or literary pursuit 
whatever, than any thing connected with the book 
which tells us of our eternal interests. 



160 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 

YALUE OF HISTORICAL KNOWLEDGE. 

There was a merchant of Kentucky who had 
been a settled infidel for more than fifteen years. 
He was unusually skilful in the management of 
sceptical arguments. His ability to cover or to per- 
vert the truth seemed to have led him into a feeling 
of entire security. Nevertheless, after reaching mid- 
dle life, a train of kind providences from heaven led 
him to a few deliberate meditations. These eventu- 
ated in his becoming willing to read a few more pages 
on the subject of Christianity, by way of inquiry. 
While looking through Scott's Family Bible, some 
notes on the prophecy of Daniel arrested his no- 
tice and fixed his attention, causing him to desire 
still further research into other parts of the book of 
heaven. 

We feel inclined to notice one of the passages 
which seemed interesting to him, and which has 
benefited others greatly. Every chapter in the book 
resembles it, and has fed thousands ; nor do we, by 
quoting this chapter, present it as more striking than 
any other in the prophecy, but a selection must be 
made, and we offer these verses, hoping that the 
reader will peruse all, frequently and prayerfully, 
together with the notes and comments of those who 
are capable of instructing. 

" Thou, king, sawest, and behold, a great im- 






CURE OF INFIDELITY. 161 

age. This great image, whose brightness was excel- 
lent, stood before thee ; and the form thereof was 
terrible. This image's head was of fine gold, his 
breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs 
of brass, his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and 
part of clay. Thou sawest till that a stone was cut 
out without hands, which smote the image upon 
his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them 
to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the 
silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and 
became like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors ; 
and the wind carried them away, that no place was 
found for them : and the stone that smote the image 
became a great mountain, and filled the whole 
earth. This is the dream ; and we will tell the in- 
terpretation thereof before the king. 

" Thou, king, art a king of kings : for the God 
of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and 
strength, and glory. And wheresoever the children 
of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls 
of the heaven hath he given into thy hand, and hath 
made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head 
of gold. And after thee shall arise another king- 
dom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of 
brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth. And 
the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron : foras- 
much as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all 
things : and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it 
break in pieces and bruise. And whereas thou saw- 
est the feet and toes, part of potters' clay and part 
of iron, the kingdom shall be divided ; but there 
shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch 



162 CAUSE AND CUKE OF INFIDELITY. 

as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay. And 
as the toes of the feet were part of iron and part of 
clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and 
partly broken. And whereas thou sawest iron mixed 
with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with 
the seed of men ; but they shall not cleave one to 
another, even as iron is not mixed with clay. And 
in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven 
set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed : 
and the kingdom shall not bfe left to other people, 
but it shall break in pieces and consume all these 
kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. Forasmuch 
as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the 
mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces 
the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold ; 
the great God hath made known to the king what 
shall come to pass hereafter : and the dream is cer- 
tain, and the interpretation thereof sure." Daniel 
2 : 31-45. 

An intelligent man had read these verses fre- 
quently and heard them read, but he scarcely inquired 
for any meaning. He left them, as millions do the 
greater part of God's letter from heaven, not asking 
after any signification. He had read ancient history, 
but never thought of comparing the two together, 
until he observed the remarks of a commentator. 
He was then startled at the small volume of facts, 
which he had perhaps heard before, but never had ap- 
plied. He remembered the extremity to which Por- 
phyry was driven while writing against the book of 
Daniel. Porphyry, just after the apostolic age, could 
only shun the force of truth by hoping or asserting 



CUEE OF INFIDELITY. 163 

that the events were accomplished before they were 
written. " But," said he, "I am not allowed this 
refuge, for a greater part of these verses have been 
fulfilling down through the fifteen centuries that fol- 
lowed the death of Porphyry ; even were we to forget 
that almost all which is written of the Macedonians 
and Romans came to pass after the Grreek translation 
against which he wrote was made." 

Reader, let us notice this history of the world 
which the Lord gave the prophet so long since, and 
then we shall be ready to make some inferences which 
concern the cure of infidelity. 

It was Megasthenes, we believe, who states that 
one of the Assyrian kings told on his death-bed that 
his empire was to be overturned by the Medes and 
Persians. That which astonished the heathen author 
does not surprise us, for we know how the dying king 
came by the information. He had it from the proph- 
et of Jehovah. Daniel said to him, " Thou art this 
head of gold." The arms, two in number, repre- 
sented a double kingdom. Babylon was taken by 
the Medo-Persian forces. Silver is not so rich as gold, 
but is more precious than other metals. The Medes 
and Persians were not so wealthy, splendid, or gaudy 
as their predecessors, but they surpassed greatly the 
nations that followed. The body of the image was 
of brass. The Macedonians, who vanquished and 
succeeded the Persians, were inferior to them in 
wealth. Brass falls below silver in value. The Mac- 
edonians used that metal on their armor to such an 
extent that they were called in Europe, brazen sol- 
diers, Let us not forget that this third kingdom, this 



164 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

kingdom of brass, was to bear rule over all the earth. 
This was not said of the silver, Medo-Persian, em- 
pire. If this had been the prediction, the prophecy 
would have failed. It was Alexander who, at the 
head of the brazen soldiers, in the language of histo- 
ry and prophecy, conquered the world. The fourth 
kingdom was to do the same, and do more. It was 
to break in pieces and bruise. Former victors had 
conquered nations and subdued them, but the Romans 
went further — they divided and subdivided, destroy- 
ing lines and boundaries, forming governments, sec- 
tions, and hierarchies, which no language will so well 
fit as that of bruising into pieces. All who are not 
thrown into pleasing astonishment, while reading this 
prediction concerning the fourth kingdom, to observe 
her state, conduct, condition, etc., more expressively 
described in these and in other verses — chapter 7, 
verse 7 — than the pen of history did afterwards por- 
tray it, are kept from this enjoyment by their want of 
information. If we notice the Hebrew prophet while 
describing the Roman government, we must look be- 
yond the nation he is picturing, three kingdoms back 
into antiquity, and from his post there erected, he 
delineates more expressively than those who lived at 
the time. Ignorance of history may prevent it, but 
to some this is striking indeed. Iron is not so rich as 
silver and brass. The Romans were poor, stern, har- 
dy, temperate, plain, unyielding, and tenacious. The 
iron kingdom was to subdue the earth. It did take 
within the circuit of its grasp that which was the 
known world. As the centuries of this prophecy 
passed on, and the events described did roll by, they 



CURE OF INFIDELITY. 165 

were noticed by some. It is the wise that under- 
stand, and they are few indeed, in every age ; but 
some few of them all alonsr have understood and 
looked for that which was next to take place. Thus a 
Christian father — we believe it was Jerome— remind- 
ed his brethren that in his and their day the image 
was upon its iron legs. If the arms pictured a 
double kingdom, the legs will mark the same. Rome 
became the eastern and the western empire, Constan- 
tinople being the eastern capital. This Christian 
father lived after the death of Porphyry, and saw the 
prophetic history still going on. He would of course 
know, and his contemporaries who watched with him 
would know, what the toes of the image would desig- 
nate. It was some time before the ten kingdoms 
were formed, which were to represent the ten toes of 
the image. These same ten kingdoms are pointed 
at in prophecy elsewhere more than once. We have 
already noticed chapter seventeen of the Revelation, 
where they are exhibited as fragments of the empire 
of the Cesars; and their subserviency and obedience 
to Rome are also mentioned, together with their final 
hatred and destructive animosity, which is at last to 
prove her ruin. From the position in which these 
kingdoms are held before us again in Revelation, chap- 
ter thirteen, we might infer that they would continue 
to exist at least twelve hundred and sixty years. AVe 
gather the same from the information afforded us re- 
specting them in the seventh chapter of Daniel.^ But 

=fc We say to those who read the page of prophecy, that if 
they -will search closely through the sacred volume, they will 
find the following fact. In different places, where the great 



166 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

to the observer of history who contemplates the com- 
mencement of the ten kingdoms of Europe, and 
watches them for a time, it does not appear probable 
that they will continue in this divided state so as to 
resemble the ten toes or the ten horns for half that 
number of years, twelve hundred and sixty. These 
ten kingdoms of Europe — such, as were to give their 
power and strength to the beast — were, it is true, to 
possess some of the old Roman iron in their texture. 
And they did have much of that character in their 
composition ; but they were to have the weakness of 
modern degeneracy, which clay would not be so stern 
and durable. Those who have been watching this 
image, its growth, or duration, through different ages, 

and glorious One is speaking to the sinful worms of earth con- 
cerning that which has not taken place, hut which will cer- 
tainly come to pass, he tells them that a day shall stand for a 
year ; that is, each day of the time during which a given event 
was fulfilling, should represent a year expended in the accom- 
plishment of it. If the Lord chooses to have a year thus rep- 
resented, it is enough for us to know the fact. We need not 
ask for the reason. He has said concerning these events, 
that " none of the wicked shall understand ; hut the wise shall 
understand." There is one truth which we should do well to 
rememher. To an Israelite who had two modes of computing 
time, it did not sound strange to count years "by days and 
weeks. A week with him meant seven years ; each day of 
that week was a year long. If he told his friend that it was 
three weeks until the jubilee, he meant twenty-one years. If 
they spoke of a month, they often meant thirty years. And, 
dear young reader, if you say, "I cannot understand what is 
meant hy seventy weeks, or forty and two months, or a time 
and times and a half, and these scripture terms," let me answer 
you. You had better understand! You learn more difficult 
things in cases of worldly business. And moreover, God has 
never said thai your ignorance should be your excuse. 



CURE OF INFIDELITY. 167 

have no doubt felt much as the reader of history, who 
has also read the Bible, feels. When he sees such a 
character as Charlemagne, or Charles V., or Napo- 
leon of France, arise and press onward, overthrowing 
all before him, and at length reaching out his giant 
arms entirely around some two, or three, or four of 
these kingdoms, press them all into one, he is ready 
to exclaim, " Surely the charm is broken. Can Eu- 
rope continue any longer so divided as to represent 
the ten toes of the image, or the ten horns of a 
beast ? Surely, hereafter it must be under the do- 
minion of only one or two." Bat let him look a little 
longer, and he will find the cords once more broken. 
Although differently divided, the ten horns are there 
still. The revolution was long and bloody ; nations 
were fractured and sifted through each other ; but 
there are the ten toes still, and part of their compo- 
sition is yet clay. Again, when he sees those sove- 
reigns scheming in their marriage contracts for their 
children, negotiating for their marriage portions, etc., 
he is ready to fancy, " Surely it will not be long un- 
til several of these estates will become one, and dif- 
ferent kingdoms will be consolidated, and fall by in- 
heritance to the lot of one." Reader, different farms 
and large tracts of land are thus united and become 
the property of one, every day that the sun passes 
over us ; but an old grey-headed Hebrew man, twen- 
ty-three hundred years since, was told to write con- 
cerning the kingdoms of Europe, " They shall mingle 
themselves with the seed of men ; but they shall not 
cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with 
clay." These kingdoms were to commence a thousand 



168 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

or twelve hundred years after the death of the proph- 
et. Although this was a long time for the few of the 
wise to watch j who were looking in every age, yet it 
came to pass at last, and they were reminded that 
Jehovah does not forget his word. These ten toes 
were to continue more than twelve hundred years, 
acting in a given way and under very improbable 
circumstances. Some few of the w T ise were looking 
on. The horns or toes did thus continue, and they 
have thus acted. 

There is one more declaration which was made 
long since, but has not yet been brought to pass. It 
was to be done in the latter days, and at the last 
times of these ten kingdoms. It was, " The God of 
heaven shall set up a kingdom." Reader, do you 
think he will ? He has not failed to do all that was 
said besides this, and we believe that he will keep 
his word also here. " The God of heaven shall set 
up a kingdom." This universal kingdom is the rock 
which is to become a great mountain, and fill the 
whole earth. This rock was once small ; it was cut 
out without hands. This stone has been lonsr cut 
out. It is to smite the image on the feet. It is yet 
to become a great mountain. Before we notice fur- 
ther the increase of this mountain, we will meditate 
once more on that which we have before thought of 
and written about, its being cut out without hands, 
" That rock was Christ." That a rock should be cut 
without hands, seems to us incredible. That the re- 
ligion of Jesus Christ should obtain a commencement 
in the world, and then remain there half a century, 
is equally strange and incredible, provided we look 



CURE OF INFIDELITY. 169 

faithfully at the circumstances under which it was 
introduced. Reader, the Lord, in making use of 
such an expression, calls for our attention. Before 
we are arraigned before him, we should do well to 
ask after the meaning of such a figure. It will re- 
quire another chapter to ask after the propriety of 
euch a comparison. Let us attend prayerfully to 
what the Judge has said to us in that language. 



Cause and Cure. 



170 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

THE SUBJECT CONTINUED. 

"When we find the introduction of Christianity- 
expressed in prophecy by the cutting out of a rock 
without hands, we should inquire honestly after the 
propriety of the figure. If we had been in an ad- 
joining apartment, looking on when the Lord's sup- 
per was instituted, when the emblematic cup was 
first handed round, and some one had asked us how 
long that memorial would continue in the world, how 
should we have answered him? Suppose much de- 
pended upon our giving a correct answer, upon our 
judicious opinion respecting the durability of that 
feast ; we must, before we ventured upon a confi- 
dent reply, make many inquiries and ascertain many 
facts. Reader, let us now make these inquiries, ask 
these questions, notice these facts, remember these 
circumstances. As sure as (rod calls to the men he 
has made, we should be familiar with such truth. 
If we had been thus spectators in Jerusalem, and it 
had been demanded of us how long that supper would 
in all probability be celebrated in the world, we must, 
before deciding, make the following inquiries : 

1. Is this city where the feast is instituted, to re- 
main long as it now is ? Answer : No. That indi- 
vidual at the head of the table, who hands the bread 
and cup, has told his followers that one stone shall 



CUEE OF INFIDELITY. 171 

not be left upon another in the loftiest buildings. He 
has informed them that the room where they now are, 
and the house containing the room, and the city which 
contains the house, will be crushed before destruc- 
tion's rudest ploughshare, and that ere long ! His 
inspired followers have written, " As often as ye eat 
this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's 
death till he come." Again, they explain his coming 
to be at or near the end of the world. The question 
still recurs, " Does he expect that any will continue 
to show his death until the end of the world ?" He 
had informed them, that ere long war would riot- in 
its wildest, bloodiest revel ; that nation should be 
dashed against nation, and shivered like a potter's 
vessel ; and history has informed us that so it was. 
Under this view of facts thus far we might have 
supposed, if there, that no one would remember him 
through the turmoil, unless we had known who he 
was. Such, no doubt, would have been our conjec- 
ture. 

Before asking the second question, it is necessary 
that we should remember distinctly, that men are 
often well pleased when certain things are enjoined 
by their religion. "When some of the ancient na- 
tions were told that if they used wine to intoxication, 
through the long nightly revel in honor of Bacchus, 
it would please that deity, they had no particular 
objection to the command ; nay, it pleased them. 
When the Mohamedans are told that the more of 
their enemies they kill with the sword, the greater 
shall be their sensual joys in paradise, it does not 
displease them. Revenge on those they hate is not 



172 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

bard to cultivate. It requires no sacrifice. It is 
ordering them to do that which they love to do. 
"When the Asiatic is told by the priests of his relig- 
ion, that the practice of adultery through a long feast 
of obscenity will conciliate the favor of a particular 
deity, he is well satisfied with that worship. "When 
others are told to hang up the mangled bodies of their 
adversaries, in honor of the god of war, compliance 
requires no self-abasement. 

Question 2. Does he who is instituting this me- 
morial require of his followers that which men love 
to do — to fight, or to feast, or to practise fornication; 
and does he forbid only that which men already hate ? 
Answer. He enjoins meekness, the love of enemies, 
turning the cheek to the second blow, temperance, 
chastity to the strictest thought or heaven is lost, 
patience, non-conformity to the world, etc. 

Question 3. Does he not promise them that if 
they follow him, and are called after him, they shall 
thus arise to worldly honor ? Answer. He tells them, 
" Ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake." 

Question 4. Does he not offer them safety at 
least? Answer. He said, " Whosoever killeth you, 
will think he doeth Grod service." 

Question 5. Surely he engages for their peace and 
rest ? Answer. All the pledge he gave of this kind 
was such as the following : " They shall scourge you 
from city to city." He will tell those twelve men 
sitting around him, that but one of them shall die 
a natural death. 

If we had been there on that night and heard him 
say, " This do in remembrance of me," and had we 



CURE OF INFIDELITY. 173 

been asked earnestly as to our expectations respect- 
ing the durability of the ordinance or his religion, in 
view of the facts we have named and of similar truths, 
we should have answered, " No one will do this or 
care for him twenty years from this hour." This 
would have been our deliberate judgment, unless we 
had known that he was the Maker of stars, or unless 
we had forgotten to estimate that which we well 
know of mankind. He who does not know that men 
love ease and indulgence and sensuality, has but a 
narrow circle of mental vision. He is a fool, or he 
speaks falsely, who does not confess that the hope of 
honor, affluence, and exaltation had and still has an 
overflowing influence with the sons of men. 

The name of the individual who promised perse- 
cution, but no flattering advancement ; who permit- 
ted toil and poverty, but no sensuality; who said, 
" This do in remembrance of me," his name now is 
heard and felt as no other name is. It shakes the 
soul of those who deny it. It is felt by those who 
hate it, by every member of every club that meets to 
revile it. Reader, we cannot understand this clearly, 
unless we notice the difference between honoring' a 
name and feeling it. We had better see these points 
clearly, on many serious accounts. That we may not 
mistake, let us look at nothing short of facts. 

Fact 1. The Mohamedan does honor the name of 
his prophet. He honors it enough to cause him to 
plunge his sword in your heart, were you to speak 
against it. "When he prays he does not weep, his 
voice does not falter. "When he pronounces the name 
of his prophet he does not tremble, as by a melting 



174 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

influence ; he honors, but he does not feel that 
name. 

Fact 2. Fifty persons of very different charac- 
ters were sitting in one house — this has happened 
every Sabbath since we were born — the tear was in 
the eye of every one of them ; they sobbed and could 
not speak. They were listening to something about 
the Man of Calvary, but they had heard it five hun- 
dred times before. They felt that name in some 
way. And so does the bitterest hater of Christianity 
you can find in any street. "We may see this like- 
wise, if we choose, and if we are not afraid to look 
at facts. 

Facts on the other side. Fact 1. If you will 
sit down by the side of that man who is near the 
hotel fire, or at the dining-table, or in the stage- 
coach, and exhort him to be a worshipper of Vishnu 
or Siva, or implore him to become a Mohamedan — 
being sincere and in earnest we mean — he will laugh 
at you. Or talk to him with mere scientific interest 
on the different religions of the earth, and he will 
hear the names of five thousand gods that are wor- 
shipped by millions pronounced with entire indiffer- 
ence. He does not care whether you speak in praise 
or reproach, reverence or ridicule. It is not so with 
the name of the Sufferer of Grethsemane — far from 
it. You will see his eye flash with anger, and his 
brow gather instantly. Meet him in the street, or on 
board the vessel, it matters not, the name of Christ 
he will not bear. He reviles it, and the most humble 
and affectionate approach on the subject of eternity 
in the name of Christ, he calls intolerable. Ah, my 



CURE OF INFIDELITY. 175 

infidel brother, you mock that name, but you feel it. 
And you will feel it more and more, in heaven or in 
hell, for ever and for ever. The religion of the Saviour 
was introduced and kept in the world as others were 
not, and this stone will fill the whole earth, although 
it may appear improbable to those who do not observe 
that that rock has been cut out without hands. 

Application. Multitudes have read this portion of 
the second chapter of Daniel, or other parts of the 
same chapter, or other chapters in the same wonder- 
. ful prophecy, and have passed on with but little ex- 
cited thought. After this they have, while reading 
the remarks of some pious commentator, been re- 
minded of historical facts which they had read or 
been driven to read for the first time, and they have 
been brought to see beauties and marvels in the book 
of God, which their ignorance had before hid from 
their eyes. Let it not be supposed that we state 
these facts of Daniel alone. We take these passages 
as samples ; but in aiming at the cure of infidelity, 
we exhort to the study of the whole volume, the 
wonderful volume, the Bible. 

The man who erects a druggist's shop, need not 
become the inventor of the chemical processes by 
which alkalies and affinities are formed. He may 
avail himself of the labors of those who have gone 
before him, without being called a servile copyist. 
Thus, if you have not twenty years to spare in 
searching in a given way through the holy Scrip- 
tures, to compare verses, and trace Hebrew verbs, or 
to ask after heathen history, you may avail yourself 
of the labor of others. An author on geography will 



176 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

tell you more in an hour than you could explore or 
measure for a week, should the pride of originality 
make you decline the assistance of others in this 
case. 

A commentator will bring before your view, with- 
in the compass of a few days, more objects through- 
out the dim wide field of antiquity and tradition, 
than you can yourself collect by years of toil. But 
the adversary of souls would rejoice, were you to de- 
cline the assistance of others, and labor none your- 
self. 



CURE OF INFIDELITY. 177 



CHAPTER XXXY. 

AN EXAMPLE. 

Case of the use of the powerful remedy. Two 
professional men once formed an attachment for each 
other. We may designate them by the appellation 
of the youthful and the more aged. The younger 
friend had been liberally educated, and he com- 
menced his profession thoughtless, joyous, and from 
the first successful. The more aged friend feared 
that his indifference in things of religion was based 
on infidelity — made inquiry, and found his conjec- 
tures were correct. At a subsequent interview, he 
approached his young friend, offering a volume, and 
an address like the following, from his heart : 

" My friend, I believe it is your wish to do me a 
favor when you have it in your power. I know that 
you would arise from your bed at midnight, and put 
yourself to much inconvenience to serve me. I am 
about to ask of you a favor which you can confer. I 
have it more at heart than the value of much prop- 
erty, and it will cost you very little to comply with 
my wishes." He was answered as he had expected, 
with the most open declarations of readiness to act 
where it was in his power to benefit his friend. The 
older friend then continued, " The favor I ask is, that 
you will read this book through, soberly and faith- 
fully, endeavoring to master the train of thought as 
you proceed. "When you are through, should much 

8* 



178 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

of the treatise be forgotten, or appear obscure, read it 
again." 

The work was cheerfully undertaken, the promise 
given, and the book received. The volume contain- 
ed, as well remembered, Paley's Evidences of Chris- 
tianity, and Watson's Apology. When the friends 
did not meet, they corresponded, and this subject 
chiefly engaged them, whether personally or by let- 
ter. The young man, after he had read the book, 
laid his hand casually upon another author on the 
same subject. He was sufficiently excited to under- 
take its reading. Before he finished this, he said, 
" I have a spirit, and I have no doubt it will be lost, 
or very happy for ever." His more aged friend asked 
him to read Doddridge's Rise and Progress of Relig- 
ion in the Soul. He complied ; and while reading, 
thought that he had entered into a compact with his 
Redeemer, which gave him great joy. He was so 
elated, that he has ever since — fifteen years — tried to 
persuade others to do the same. 

Cases resembling the above are taking place, 
wherever a similar course is pursued. Books of this 
kind are not much read, for reasons which will be 
found in the following chapter. In fifteen years 
more, neither of those two friends may remain 
on the earth. They both seemed to be made very 
happy by the occurrence named ; and that enjoy- 
ment seemed to last for fifteen years. Perhaps it 
may add to their pleasures for more than fifteen 
years, after they go hence. It has already been 
worth more than the toil expended on either side, 
many times told. 



CURE OF INFIDELITY. 179 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

WORKS ON THE EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 

Recapitulation of the powerful remedy. Books 
on the evidences of Christianity are but little read in 
our nation. 

Some of the reasons why this is so it would be 
well to observe. 

1. Many who are inclined to unbelief, whose 
doubts are enough to paralyze their energies in seek- 
ing conversion, are not confirmed sceptics. They do 
not call themselves infidels. They do not know the 
name of these authors, or that many of the books 
exist. They do not inquire, and those who never 
were thus annoyed themselves, suspect none of infi- 
delity but the bitter declaimers against the Bible. 

2. These books are little read, for few of them 
are in circulation. Inquire in an ordinary village for 
ten such authors, and you will not be able to find 
them. The minister perhaps may have one or two. 
These few are not much read, for the following rea- 
sons. Perhaps here is a man who has prevailed on an 
unbeliever to read a certain volume. He finishes it, 
and informs his Christian friends that he is more 
encompassed in cloud than he was before. They are 
disheartened, and he is not benefited. They perhaps 
ask another to read the same work, hoping to see a 
happy result in the second case. The man perhaps 
looks into the book occasionally, and lays it down ; 



180 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

takes it up again, and thinks it hard to compre- 
hend — thinks it does not touch the points which 
perplex him. He lays it down again, the world 
presses, his business harasses, amusements divert ; 
and after some months they find he has not read, 
and they lose all hope in the case. After meeting a 
few similar results, they believe that almighty power 
could save, but they have little confidence in means. 
If soldiers of the cross had a full assortment of truth- 
ful volumes, and were to make a prayerful effort, 
they would meet cases where unbelieving friends and 
neighbors could be induced to read six or eight vol- 
umes ; and perhaps repeat a part of the research. 
In these instances they would scarcely ever find one, 
if ever, who would still dispute the message of high 
heaven. They would meet those who would refuse, 
and those who would only half perform ; but one 
case of a soul snatched from the gulf would repay all 
the labor. "We will here name some who have writ- 
ten on the evidences of Christianity, so that out of 
the list some six or ten may be asked after by any 
inquirer. From the following list, it is a matter of 
comparative indifference which is selected, so that 
enough is chosen and read until the subject is mas- 
tered. It is strangely true, that these books are not 
known to Christians. The few that are in circula- 
tion are scattered and invisible. Enough of them 
can rarely be found together to inform extensively 
the mind and heart disposed to cavil. The following 
books are a few out of the many which are more 
than worth the cost of possession. Evidences of 
Christianity, by Grotius ; Paley's, Locke's, Addi- 



CURE OF INFIDELITY. 181 

son's, Campbell's, Sherlock's, Lyttleton's, Le Clerc's, 
"West's, Douglass', Leslie's, Lardner's, Porteus', Beat- 
tie's, Soame Jenyns', Jones', and Burnet's Evidences 
of Christianity; Alexander's Evidences; Faber's Dif- 
ficulties of Infidelity; Newton on Prophecy; Stack- 
house's History of the Bible ; Scott's Family Bible ; 
Home's Introduction, vol. 1; Watson's Apology; 
Jews' Letters to Voltaire ; Prideaux's Connections ; 
Horse Paulinae ; Paley's Natural Theology ; Shuck- 
ford's Connections. 

The reason why many, on beginning to read the 
advocates for Christianity, sink deeper into the mire 
of their infidelity, is worthy of our notice. It is inti- 
mately connected with the transaction of the garden 
and the forbidden fruit. The author who writes on 
the evidences of Christianity begins, very commonly, 
to overturn the cavils and sophisms of unbelievers ; 
such as he has heard urged, or such as are often 
made. The young reader perhaps never heard these 
objections urged against our religion. He certainly 
never did hear or see the one half of those in use. 
He did not know that they existed. As soon as he 
sees them on the page of the Christian writer, for the 
purpose of refutation, the objection seizes the powers 
of his soul. The answer he does not receive — he 
cannot notice. Such is the nature of fallen man. 
This is true of those who would be glad to believe 
the book of God. Darkness has for their souls a su- 
perior attraction. It is not until he reads the work 
the second or the third time, that he begins to observe 
the quibble less, and the answer more. 



182 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

CHAPTER XXXVII. 

TESTIMONY RESISTED. 

Concluding remarks concerning the powerful 
remedy. We must shortly endeavor to look at the 
all-powerful remedy, at the remedy which never fails 
when used. In this concluding chapter on the power- 
ful remedy, we must not neglect to observe something 
of the amount of evidence which God has furnished 
in this remedy. We have been writing of the ex- 
ternal evidences of Christianity; we now ask as to 
the extent and the force of this evidence. How much 
of this external testimony has the Creator furnished? 
The answer is, He has given enough to prove the 
truth and inspiration of the Scriptures, and no more. 
He did not intend any thing further. Let us not be 
misunderstood. We do not mean, that this point is 
not proved again and again, times out of number ; 
but this kind of testimony does nothing more than 
prove it, and can do no more. Take the verbal testi- 
mony of a score of credible witnesses to a given fact, 
in a court of justice, and the incident is proved ; 
bring in ten thousand others, and it is not more than 
proved. There may be a man who disbelieves still. 
But if we place the incident before his eyes, it is 
established then as verbal testimony could not do it. 
If he refuse to receive the testimony of one hun- 
dred respectable witnesses, he may discover to us an 
unloveliness of soul by such a position ; nevertheless, 



CURE OF INFIDELITY. 183 

we would confess that eyesight is of the two the 
stronger testimony. That the Bible is the book of 
heaven, is shown by this external evidence with a 
frequency which cannot be counted. But it is only 
proved. No coercion was ever designed. Men may 
yet disbelieve. It never was intended to make it 
impossible for a man to ruin himself, if obstinately 
bent in that direction. If man's rationality, his judg- 
ing for himself, were taken away from him, it would 
not please earth, and we suppose it would not rejoice 
heaven. Man does judge wrong, and choose to his 
own hurt ; but he does not wish to be turned into a 
piece of thinking, necessary mechanism. Reader, no 
matter how many historical facts ; no matter how 
many prophetic verities and accomplishments ; no 
matter how many celestial sentiments and beauties 
call to you to say, " This book is from heaven," you 
can disbelieve it. It is not only possible, but it is of 
easy performance. You can continue uninformed 
concerning the history, or you may forget the facts 
once noticed. Others you can neglect to apply. You 
may besot your soul with sin until incapable of feel- 
ing the heavenly sentiment. You may close your 
eyes and ears, and harden your heart, until you can 
believe or disbelieve any thing. It has been tried. 
All the evidence of this character which could be 
given may be resisted. Testimony of this descrip- 
tion, piled higher than the mountains, has been gain- 
said. We come to notice in the next chapter, a 
kind of testimony which cannot be resisted — the 
remedy which is infallible. But before we reach 
this, we will look at one more case which exhibits 



184 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

the fall of man, and reminds us of our love for dark- 
ness more than li^ht. It is one out of the millions 
that exist every day, telling us that all testimony 
may be resisted where the heart sets in a different 
direction. 

Concluding case. There was an agriculturist of 
the West who was wealthy. He was a man of good 
education, and an infidel. The most of his friends, 
associates, and relatives hated Christ with an uncon- 
cealed dislike. A train of circumstances gave a cer- 
tain preacher of the gospel access to this man's ear, 
which few ministers could obtain. They had each 
other's confidence and esteem. The minister, at dif- 
ferent times, informed him plainly and fully of the 
want of information prevailing in the army of unbe- 
lievers, and told him that this ignorance was like- 
wise his. He requested him to read a number of the 
books we have named, and at length addressed to him 
the following sentiments : " My friend, eternity is 
long, and the prize you may win invaluable, therefore 
I must be plain with you. You may read these books, 
and reperuse them, for you have little else to do. The 
amount of newspaper invective which you read, shows 
what time and vision you could expend, if so inclined. 
You are judging about religion, and never heard nor 
read much more than the revilings of its truth. You 
begin to suspect that much as you know on many 
subjects, you might know much more of this. Your 
judgment, if wrong, may lead to hell. Your judg- 
ment may be wrong, because you are ignorant of the 
facts from which you should draw your inferences. 
Much as you know of business, agriculture, law, or 



CURE OF INFIDELITY. 185 

political affairs, you have learned nothing here but a 
few total falsehoods, which you have read, or heard 
retailed, until you begin to take them for history. 
You have, like scoffers in general, kept other infor- 
mation so entirely excluded, that you are even lame 
in conversation, unless your antagonist is afraid to 
speak plainly. If I ask you of the letter of Tertul- 
lian, I find that you do not know within three cen- 
turies of his age, or on what continent he was born. 
If I ask you of a passage in Tacitus, I find you re- 
member not what he said of the crucified One. If I 
inquire after a passage in Joel, I find you have al- 
most forgotten, or never knew of such a book in the 
Bible. I speak of the fulfilment of a prophecy, and 
find you did not know that it had ever been uttered. 
I ask you as to the confessions of early haters of the 
gospel, and discover that you know better what they 
have written of every thing else. I do affectionately 
entreat you to inform yourself well, and then decide. 
You may be positive, if you choose, as soon as you 
are well prepared to judge. The result is too mo- 
mentous for you to risk an error here. Will you read 
the books ? Read on the other side, if you have not 
seen enough of perversion. Take more, and keep on 
until you are thorough in facts. Read on the side of 
truth faithfully, and cunning misstatements will be- 
gin to lose their influence over you. Continue still 
to read, and after a time every entire lie stated by a 
celebrated opposer of the gospel will weaken his cause 
in your estimation. Will you read?" He was an- 
swered, " I will read someP The substance of the 
following dialogue then took place. 



186 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

Preacher. Why not read industriously ? you con- 
fess there is much that you might learn. If so, there 
is a possibility you may be wrong. We should never 
decide in ivhole where we know but half, especially 
if it be an inquiry of momentous consequence. 

Unbeliever. True, I see that there are many 
things I have not learned. I would be willing to 
know them, but I fear to promise you, lest I should 
fail, for you know that we have not always a taste 
for every kind of reading. 

Minister. If you may possibly be wrong, and I 
may possibly be right, then you may be now neglect- 
ing mercy, and rejecting- heaven ; and in the hour of 
final conflagration you will feel how much activity 
was called for at the present hour of your indolence, 
because your mistake can nevermore be rectified, 
and your failure will continue unendingly. For the 
sake of a possible fortune, men will toil. "Will you 
not, for the sake of a possible eternity of joy, read a 
few books attentively ? 

Unbeliever. Perhaps I ought to read something, 
as you request ; but you know we are often called 
away by pressing business. Visiting our friends 
sometimes makes us forget our studies, and further- 
more, what few pages I have seen on this subject 
were somewhat dull to me. I fear that I may find 
the investigation irksome to one of my habits and 
accustomed indulgences. 

Reader, the following fact is that which I wish 
you to note, and avoid forgetting it, lest (rod should 
make you remember it at an unwelcome hour. If 
that man's friend had pointed him to a faint proba- 



CURE OF INFIDELITY. 187 

bility only of doubling his estate by a moderate ex- 
ertion and no risk, he would have embarked in the 
effort. If he had told him of only a distant danger 
which threatened his fifty-thousand-dollar farm, he 
would have been vigilant, and that speedily. But to 
inquire after joy and splendor everlasting, to watch 
against eternal loss, he could not be influenced. Noth- 
ing could move him to begin. What is the reason of 
this ? It is because we have an appetite for any thing 
rather than the true religion. The rolling rock moves 
down hill with ease. Fallen man climbs the hill of 
truth with difficulty, even when he wishes to ascend. 
How swiftly, then, may he rush when he seeks the 
dark vale of falsehood below. 



CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

A FURTHER REMEDY. 

The second remedy, called the All-powerful. 
"We come now to the second part of the inquiry, con- 
cerning the cure of infidelity. The remedy which is 
infallible, which never fails, is called the experimental 
evidence of Christianity. This remedy is indeed in- 
vincible. Millions have used it with success, and no 
one has ever used it in vain. It may then be asked 
by some, "Why are there any unbelievers ? "Why is not 
every infidel cured? The reason is, they will not 
use it. Dear reader, do not think this metaphori- 
cal rhapsody, or figurative expression, the result of 
strange enthusiasm. "We mean what is written. 
We mean, that there is a cure which all might use, 
many have used, thousands will not use, and that it 
is actually all-powerful. Furthermore, you shall un- 
derstand us, and understand the modus operandi of 
the remedy, if you are not afraid to follow us, and to 
observe faithfully and to meditate honestly of that 
which concerns you. You are capable of seeing this 
subject through its length and breadth; and if you do 
not, it shall be your fault and not ours, for with the 
help of God we will place it before you. We have 
resolved on childlike simplicity; and for the pur- 
pose of keeping at a distance from every thing ob- 
scure, we must ask you to remember first principles 



CURE OF INFIDELITY. 189 

of which we are all aware already, and concerning 
which there is no dispute. There is no difference 
between us concerning three principles, or acknow- 
ledged facts. That these facts may be made more 
distinct, definite, and observable, we will divide 
this chapter into sections, and devote a section to 
each one. 

Section 1. Experimental testimony is the stron- 
gest evidence ivhich exists. If we were to see a man 
of truth and probity approach a pile of new and 
strange fruit, and after partaking of it, declare that 
its taste was singularly delightful, and that its effect 
was immediately exhilarating beyond the excitement 
of wine, we might believe the statement, or we might 
not. One man might believe, and another might 
discredit the avowal. If we were to see ten more 
individuals, of equal respectability, approach one 
after the other and partake, each one declaring forth- 
with that the taste was strange but delightful, and 
the result rapid exhilaration, the evidence would be 
much strengthened by their statement. Add one 
hundred more, and the testimony might be called 
more than convincing. But it still does not entirely 
equal our own experience, when we partake and find 
it as declared. Experimental testimony is the stron- 
gest evidence by which we are influenced. 

Section 2. Man cannot feel by simple effort, 
and by mere resolve. Should some one of boundless 
resources offer you an estate equal to a nation's treas- 
ury, provided you would love with glowing attach- 
ment the son of a Russian officer, whose name you 
hear, but who is an entire stranger to you, you could 



190 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

not succeed by simply trying to do so. Our affec- 
tions are not moved in this way. No matter how 
much you might desire to win the prize, you could 
not arouse in your bosom a devoted affection by mere 
resolve. You might act the hypocrite, but nothing 
more. Suppose you were offered a large amount of 
gold, if you would hate with sincere abhorrence some 
one who had been long dead, say the father of Demos- 
thenes the Athenian orator, you could not rouse your- 
self into vehement commotion, unless it were hypo- 
critical agitation, for all the gain which could be 
offered you. Man cannot feel by simple effort, and 
by mere resolve. If we could not either love or hate 
these objects of our entire indifference because we 
wished it, we should do well to remember that the 
difficulty would increase, were we asked to hate 
purely the object of our devoted love, or to love with 
ardor that which we cordially detest. We cannot in 
this way move our souls at will in any course we 
choose. 

Section 3. That which disposes us to feel when 
ive hear it, does not increase in force by frequent 
repetition. If I tell you of a murder which does not 
move your feelings, then repeat the same facts and 
circumstances but find that there is some reason why 
you do not feel, I am not to expect success by fre- 
quent repetition of the same narrative. If I were to 
go over the same detail every hour throughout the 
month, and should others take it up, and a thousand 
men tell it over, you might grow weary, but never 
tender. Nay, should any one relate a most affecting 
history, which caused you to weep profusely, you 



CURE. OF INFIDELITY. 191 

would begin to weep less before the week was out, 
were he to relate the same each day ; and before the 
year was ended, should this custom be continued, we 
question if you would regard any incident in the nar- 
rative. Our feelings cannot be coerced by mere rep- 
etition of a truth. 

Reader, thus far we have spoken the common sen- 
timent and the common language of men. This they 
all say, whether pious or ungodly. "We presume, 
then, that thus far we are agreed. We have never 
known these plain principles, and these simple, every- 
day facts disputed, until they are used in connection 
with religious truth. These simple truths have been 
the experience of every one oftener than he can re- 
member, and we have never known them contro- 
verted until they are found to be a lever which over- 
turns infidelity, and then we have heard them denied 
by those who had before conceded their clear, unde- 
viating verity. Read these first principles over again, 
and if you deny their existence, let it be before we 
come to their application. 



192 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 

ILLUSTRATIONS. 

The all-powerful remedy. It is not so proper 
to say of the Christian, he believes, as to say he 
knows. We mean the full-grown Christian. The 
infant cannot walk, cannot sit alone, cannot lift a 
pound ; yet it is of our race. There is so much dif- 
ference between the performance of an infant and 
that of the tall man, that we can scarcely see their 
resemblance ; but the infant is a child of Adam, a 
member of our family. The Bible calls a weak Chris- 
tian a babe in Christ. Others, full-grown men and 
women in Christ Jesus. It is true, that in the pres- 
ent age the most with whom we meet are only babes 
in Christ, if indeed born again. The infant Chris- 
tian understands the use of this remedy with almost 
as much difficulty as the unconverted. He has noth- 
ing about him but mustard-seed graces, invisible ex- 
cept in a perfect light. But we now speak of the 
full-grown child of (rod. It is the privilege of every 
one to drink freely of the milk of the word, and to 
receive his growth speedily ; but men are indolent, 
and some even pass their whole earthly journey with- 
out growing perceptibly. The full-grown man in 
Christ knows the Bible is from heaven, with a con- 
sciousness which you cannot take from him. Let 
any man whose mind is unimpaired, hold his hand in 
the blaze of a torch as long as he can bear it, and 



CURE OF INFIDELITY. 193 

after it is withdrawn let another tell him he does not 
feel pain ; tell him that it is only imagination — 
heated fancy ; let him enter into very ingenious and 
plausible arguments concerning caloric, to persuade 
him that it is all fancy or fanaticism ; let him jeer, 
deride, supplicate, or threaten, it is all the same: 
you cannot change his creed in this case, because it 
is a matter of sensation, and not of simple opinion. 
So it is with the Christian — with each one who uses 
the all-powerful remedy ; it is a matter of feeling, of 
consciousness with him. If the man who has held 
his hand in the blazing torch, were' to sink into for- 
getfulness as it regards the sensation of pain, and 
hold his hand again in the blaze, he would soon have 
his knowledge recalled. The sensation of the Chris- 
tian is as plain and direct as that from the lamp, and 
it is repeated ten times every day. All may use this 
remedy who choose — the experimental evidences of 
Christianity. We now enter into further explanation 
by giving the history of incidents as they occurred. 

EXPERIMENTAL CURE. 

Illustrative incidents. Case 1. There was a 
man of middle age, of cold, slow, doubting tenden- 
cy of soul, who obtained at last a Christian's hope. 
He hoped that his name w r as in the book of life ; 
but he w^as only an infant, a weakly infant. He 
seemed to grow a little in the course of six or eight 
years, but very slowly. He dreaded his deficiency 
in one feature of Christian character. The appre- 
hension gave him pain. He read in one section of 
his Master's letter, " Love your enemies." He for 

Cau9« and Cw«. 9 



194 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

a long time, like thousands of his brethren, concluded 
he would not hurt them, or fight them, or return 
evil for evil, and hoped this was love. He could hear 
others say of injuries received, " I can forgive, but I 
will not forget it," and he could see in their case 
clearly that this was Satan's kind of forgiveness. It 
made him fear in his own case, that he did not love 
his enemies. He remembered that his bleeding 
Leader was too stern in his purity to accept of a 
false love. He knew that it did not mean a love of 
approbation for their sins, but the love of compas- 
sion. He knew that the love of compassion was a ten- 
der and melting love, and that he did not possess it. 
He sat down trying to feel it, but did not succeed. 
He tried again and again for a year. He did not love 
his enemies. He read on the subject. He thought 
it over in every way ; he prayed over it for another 
year. He did not love his enemies. He went to 
making stronger efforts, for he thought it would be 
hard to miss heaven at last. He continued trying for 
eleven or twelve years. He thought at times that 
his feelings were perhaps softer, but he soon found it 
was not love. At length he found that by mere effort 
he could not move his affections. He knew that he 
could not wish a lofty rock into a rill of milk, and he 
could not wish hatred into love. He became alarmed. 
He fasted and prayed in earnest, and at an hour when 
he was not looking for it, at a moment he was least 
expecting it, he loved his enemies. It was a real 
love. He knew it in the same way, reader, that you 
know mirth from woe when you feel it yourself. If, 
when vour bosom is shaken with the sob of anguish 



CURE OF INFIDELITY. 195 

after losing a smiling son or daughter, your friend 
should say to you, " Perhaps you are mistaken; are 
you sure it is not mirth you feel ?" You would tell 
him, I have felt both, and the difference is very strik- 
ing. This man, after remembering how long and how 
hard he had tried to love his enemies without suc- 
cess, began to feel that it was the Spirit of Grod, the 
invisible Spirit, who is willing to have intercourse 
with men who wish it and who quit sin, that had 
changed his heart and planted a new feeling there. 
After this, if he began to forget his need of this kind 
of heavenly help, he would be left suddenly in his old 
condition. But when this threw him again on his 
knees, and he received the dew of heavenly influence 
in his soul, he was reminded of the existence of the 
Holy Spirit. He was conscious of this Bible truth. 
The flow of love in his soul was a stronger sensation 
than the cup of water which, he drank communicated 
to his palate. If you would try to persuade the thirsty 
man who dips and drinks from the spring, that his 
feelings are fanciful, that the water is hot instead of 
cold, you will not alter his belief in this case. 



196 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 



CHAPTER XL. 

ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Second remedy, The wicked may go to the prac- 
tice of the precepts of the Bible. Those who practise 
with humble industry, are met and assisted. All, we 
mean, who apply to the Saviour of lost souls, quitting 
their sins, are met ; none are rejected. Those who 
live as commanded, receive in their own spirits a con- 
sciousness, a knowledge of the inspiration of the holy 
Scriptures. Men may not only have their sins for- 
given, but they are not compelled to remain infants 
in experimental religion. This all-powerful remedy 
is offered to all. We must continue to notice it, to 
look at it again and again. We must exhibit it 
until all can understand its nature. 

EXPERIMENTAL CURE. 

Illustrative incidents. Case 2. A professor of 
religion felt concerned at the fact that his soul was 
not melted at the history of the scene of Calvary. 
He had once felt deeply at the picture of a Sav- 
iour's sufferings, but these feelings had left him. 
He heard a minister tell it over, but he had heard 
it or read it a hundred times before. He turned 
to the Testament and read again, and tried to feel ; 
his affections were dead. He went to the com- 
munion-board ; there were the cup and the bread 
speaking of blood and crucifixion; it was all old. 



CURE OF INFIDELITY. 197 

He had thought it over, trying to feel it, a hundred 
times. Reader, if you are unconverted, and if you 
think one might succeed in such a case by simple re- 
solve, try it. Create the feeling in your own bosom, 
and God grant that you may feel. 

Not to dwell on minute particulars, we must hast- 
en briefly to the result. The callous professor prayed 
and prayed w r eek after week. He did not feel. At 
last he humbled himself, fasted and prayed. When 
not looking or expecting to feel, the name of Christ 
melted his soul as words cannot describe. Any sen- 
tence he would read in the book, or hear from others, 
of the Saviour, made his tears overflow. The word 
Calvary would aw T aken in him emotions which he 
could not express. This man's experience that Grod 
is willing to converse with men, did not stop here. 
There was another doctrine which he did not feel, 
tried to feel, and failed ; he went for help to his former 
Benefactor, and succeeded. He desired another trait 
of Christian character, and endeavored to assume it 
by strong determination, but failed. He humbled 
himself before his Lord, and received bountifully. 



198 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 



CHAPTER XLI. 

ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Second remedy. Dear reader, there are two con- 
siderations which we here entreat you to treasure. 
First, the two individuals of whose experience we 
have been writing, are not the only witnesses. They 
are selected from a cloud of ten thousand times ten 
thousand. It is true, that a vast majority of pro- 
fessors never do reach beyond a state of infancy ; of 
course they do not belong to the cloud to which we 
refer. Many professors, and possessors of piety a 
little more advanced, receive answers to their prayers 
and forget it, or do not observe distinctly from whence 
their assistance came. This evidence of man's de- 
pravity — Christian stupidity — is visible every day. 
But the Lord has always an army of witnesses on 
the earth, such as the two we have noticed. The 
ungodly neighbors of these witnesses call them men 
of truth, and would take their testimony in a court 
of justice, but pay no attention to their statements 
concerning their knoivledge of eternal things. 

Again, impress it upon your recollection, that 
these witnesses have not this sight of heavenly things 
merely once or twice in a lifetime. They do not thus 
seldom have communion with Grod, and experimental 
knowledge of the doctrines of holy writ. This con- 
tinues daily and hourly, so long as they live up to 



CURE OF INFIDELITY. 199 

their duty and near to their Saviour. Here is a wit- 
ness who feels perhaps to-day that he does not mourn 
as he should over the low state of religion. After 
passing through the effort we have partly described 
before, the Spirit touches his heart, and every breath 
is a sigh of anguish or a sob of grief for the desola- 
tions of Zion. At another time he observes that he 
does not feel as he should, the nothingness of earth, 
and a proper indifference to the things of time. He 
seeks for this, and his success tells him of an omni- 
present God again. Then he wishes to feel for the 
heathen, or he wishes to feel more pungent shame 
for the sins of early life, or he desires more industry, 
or more patience, or meekness, or more exulting joy, 
or more of any one out of the long catalogue of Chris- 
tian graces ; and when he comes to ask as suppliants 
should come, he receives, until he repeats again with 
high exultation, " I know that my Redeemer liveth, 
and that he will stand at the latter day upon the 
earth; and though after my skin worms destroy this 
body, yet in my flesh shall I see God : whom I shall 
see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not 
another." Job 19 : 25. Reader, the watchful, obe- 
dient, and industrious soldier, although he walks by 
faith and not by sight, yet by gracious, spiritual, and 
bright communications, has as it were a daily sight 
into heaven. He obtains that deliberate confidence 
in eternal things which an apostle felt when he 
said, without hesitation or an expression intimating 
doubt, " There is laid up for me a crown of right- 
eousness." 

We must relate two more incidents before we 



200 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

come to the application. Reader, think and pray 
over these things, for your soul is precious. 

EXPERIMENTAL CURE. 

Illustrative incidents. Case 3. A person who 
had obtained a hope in Christ, felt great reluctance to 
conducting family worship. But he believed house- 
hold devotion to be indispensable, and resolved to at- 
tempt the duty, however self-denying. He continued 
it for nine years, wishing it was not so irksome, but 
never omitting it. When his prayers were heard, it 
was strange to what an extent the Lord manifested 
himself to him when before that altar. His feelings 
might be dull elsewhere, perhaps cold at church, 
sluggish even at the communion-table ; but in morn- 
ing and evening worship he frequently had such 
views of heaven and heavenly things that he could 
scarcely officiate. He stated that he had sometimes 
been reminded of the fact recorded of Toplady before 
his death, that- his -spiritual views became so bright 
that he exclaimed, "Lord, hold thine hand, for thy 
servant can bear no more." 

The witnesses of the Lord are not merely brought 
to feel on subjects of indifference, but in a direction 
opposite to the current of their former affections. 
They are made to hate that which they once loved, 
and to love that which they once hated. They are 
allowed any amount of evidence. The treasury can 
never be exhausted. No matter what degree of cer- 
tainty any one may wish to connect with the words, 
"I know that my Redeemer liveth," he may ask it 
of God ; and living more and more devotedly to him, 



CURE OF INFIDELITY. 201 

in the discharge of Christian duty, he may reach a 
certainty as cool and deliberate as that of the man 
who says at midnight, " I have no doubt the sun is 
down," or who says, "He shines," while looking at his 
blinding glory. There is a passionate man ; he may 
obtain meekness. There is a covetous man ; he can 
have liberality. There is a hard-hearted man ; he 
may become uncommonly tender. These men, in 
obtaining these graces, will learn that their Redeemer 
liveth, and they will be benefited. They will gain 
that which is indeed valuable, and which will make 
them instantly more happy. Oh that wicked men 
would begin the practice of Bible precepts, on more 
accounts than one. Dear, unconverted friend, in a 
few chapters more we will inquire, in your case, if 
you can obey the holy book so as to obtain divine 
evidence, and also how to do it. But we first have 
to call up a few profitable thoughts or to repeat some 
that have been mentioned. 



9# 



202 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

CHAPTER XLII. 

ILLUSTRATIONS. 

On the pages of the Bible certain things are prom- 
ised to those who seek for them — heavenly and spir- 
itual blessings, humility, victory over any besetting 
sin, devotion, Christian graces, etc. Other things are 
not promised, and no child of Grod ever seeks and 
obtains them. Personal exaltation, victory over ene- 
mies, etc., are of this class. The wish for such things 
is sinful. Again, there are certain favors we may 
ask for and hope to obtain, and yet not be certain 
that we shall obtain, because there may be something 
in the way to prevent, which God sees and we do 
not. Of this last class is the recovery of a sick rela- 
tive, the conversion of a friend, the rebuke of pesti- 
lence, etc. The first class of mercies named, a spirit 
to hate that which is hateful, and to love that which 
is lovely, the witnesses of Jesus Christ always ob- 
tain when they seek as directed. Their uniform and 
striking success makes their evidence so plain that 
they need no more. Additional evidence, however, 
is given, like an occasional flash of light from on 
high, in answer to petitions for such favors as they 
are not certain always to receive. These answers to 
prayer appear to the unconverted all as a matter of 
casualty, and as that which would have happened 
had no prayer been offered. The Christian discovers 
too much uniformity, before he watches long, to think 



CURE OF INFIDELITY. 203 

the events he is praying for take place from chance. 
"We will give examples of these evidences before we 
leave the subject. 

Illustrative incidents. Case 4. There was one 
who had disbelieved and ridiculed spiritual agency. 
He particularly and specially disbelieved the doctrine 
that Satan is the author of any of our evil sugges- 
tions. He once rode to meeting with a gay young 
merchant. Before it was over he heard two minis- 
ters agree together, in a whisper, to pray for that 
young man. While their heads were inclined, no 
doubt in prayer, he saw the young man turn pale, 
walk forward, and ask the prayers of Grod's people. 
This partial sceptic had never denied thai God ever 
influences our feelings, so firmly as he had disputed 
the agency of the evil one. That same evening he 
was present when the young man approached a 
preacher with a look of alarm and said, "Sir, I went 
into a grove for the purpose of trying to pray, and I 
could not do it. No matter when or where I made 
the effort, as soon as I would kneel, there came into 
my mind thoughts the most horrible, blasphemies the 
most inexpressible, such as I never had in all my 
years of vanity or scenes of wickedness. Can it be 
that I am getting more wicked just as I attempt to 
repent?" The preacher answered him, " My young 
friend, we know how body operates on body, for we 
can see that and handle it. Spirit is invisible ; it is 
not tangible. We do not know how spirit strikes or 
operates upon spirit ; but it does. The evil one never 
saw you likely to forsake his ranks, and he never 
was afraid of losing you before. He exerts himself 



204 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

often when threatened with desertion. He really 
can in some way inject into our minds most abomi- 
nable thoughts ; but they are not sinful in us, if we 
do not entertain or approve them. If that man in 
the street were to offer you much gold to commit 
murder, you would not be guilty if you cordially 
hated his temptation/' 

The spectator felt somewhat surprised to learn 
that incidents of this kind were not uncommon. 
After mingling with revivals, and meeting with per- 
haps a hundred cases more, he began to suspect that 
we are liable to persuasive spiritual influences, both 
good and bad. 

EXPERIMENTAL CURE. 

Illustrative incidents. Events asked for take 
place contrary to the most probable appearance of 
things. 

Case 5. A man once lived who was naturally 
timid, but in the concerns of religion he was especially 
diffident. He w T as a hundred times more ashamed to 
be heard to pray, than he once had been to be heard 
to swear. This detestable cowardice crippled and 
tormented him for many years. His son was consti- 
tutionally diffident like himself, and should he ever 
forsake the world, the almost certain result would be 
a similar backwardness in the service of the Lord. 
These thoughts, and the fear that his son would 
serve Satan long, perhaps until almost middle life, 
before he gave himself to God, threw the father on 
his knees to ask a double favor, namely, the conver- 
sion of his son in the days of boyhood, and the vie- 



CURE OF INFIDELITY. 205 

tory over cowardice in the Redeemer's army. A 
sacramental meeting approached. He believed his 
prayer answered — for a reason only understood by 
those who have felt it, and therefore it need not be 
explained or described here. He did not converse 
with his son, but he watched him. He saw him 
unite with the church, and he heard him pray in 
public without delay as soon as called on. During 
the course of a few years, when many improbable 
events asked for had thus taken place, he could say, 
" If these things happen, they happen with strange 
uniformity, and contrary to probable appearance." 



206 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 



CHAPTER XLIII. 

THE REMEDY DENIED TO NONE. 

All may use this remedy who do not incapaci- 
tate themselves by sin. Those who incapacitate 
themselves are not excusable because of their ina- 
bility. The man who bores out his own eyes has 
not the light of the sun to complain of, because he 
cannot see. The man who corrodes his palate until 
his taste is destroyed, cannot blame his food for his 
want of enjoyment in eating. Reader, if you will 
take the ten commandments in all their spirit and 
all their bearing, also the sermons, parables, and all 
the sayings of the Redeemer, as uttered by him, 
unite them together, and meditate upon them, you 
will then, we have no doubt, tell us that the prac- 
tice of each one would be very lovely. We presume 
this because it is acknowledged, and has been as- 
serted by the leaders of the infidel forces in different 
generations. If you can find any Bible precept which 
is unjust, immodest, or immoral, we may well say, 
Do not practise that. If all the precepts of the 
Scriptures are correct, we are not acting amiss to 
obey them, and to exhort others to obedience. They 
must suffer in some way who do not observe that 
which is excellent in itself. None ever became infi- 
dels but those who cease to obey the precepts of the 
Bible, more or 7 ess, or those who were reared to dis- 
regard them from infancy. The Spirit of all truth 



CURE OF INFIDELITY. 207 

and purity influences us towards truth. The most 
wicked of men is still a debtor to the Holy Spirit for 
what little religious truth he may still retain. A 
man has not abandoned all Bible truth, nor is he 
totally forsaken by the Holy Spirit, until he becomes 
a thorough atheist, either in creed or practice. "We do 
not mean a wavering atheist, but a hearty one. The 
Spirit of truth does not abide in a bosom filled with 
pollution. He takes up his constant residence in the 
heart of those who obey, and those alone. He begins 
to withdraw his influences from those who begin to 
hug enormities, and from those who turn their backs 
on God's commands. They begin to question truth, 
from whom he begins to retire. The light of heaven 
begins to appear dim in the eyes of those who have 
insulted the Spirit of truth until his agency is weak- 
ened. The loveliness of truth begins to resemble dark- 
ness and deformity, in the view of all those who are 
more or less left to themselves. If the commands of 
the blessed volume are good, let us exhort all to obey 
them. If you wish to be instructed by the G-od of 
heaven, if you desire to be led by the Being who 
made you, if you are willing to be guided by the 
author of all truth, do as he tells you. You will find 
his orders in the Bible. Practise heartily and indus- 
triously all that is commanded there, and you will 
have heavenly communications and light from on 
high. If you are one of those who have neglected 
the precepts of holy writ, and the system of Christi- 
anity begins to appear uncomely in your sight, and 
cold unbelief begins to chill your ability to pray, 
listen to what the mighty Counsellor says : " Return 



208 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord." 
Some will make the following difficulty when called 
on to begin to do right. 

" Do you ask it of us, who disbelieve the Bible," 
say they — " do you ask it of us to begin to obey it ?" 

Before we answer your question, fellow-immortal, 
we must mark the difference between those who do 
not believe, and those who really disbelieve the book ; 
and we must take pains to avoid any mistake respect- 
ing our meaning. Attend, then, to the following illus- 
tration. 

Suppose that a man of standing and of truth 
were to awake you at midnight, and to tell you con- 
cerning your farm and house some miles distant, that 
the fire was approaching it, and that its danger was 
imminent. Suppose, while you were preparing to go 
to save it, another man of equal verity and respecta- 
bility rides by, and tells you that he has just passed 
your property, and that there is a total mistake ; that 
there is no fire there, and no danger exists. Here we 
might say, there is such an equilibrium in testimony, 
that you scarcely know how to act. Then suppose a 
third messenger, somewhat inferior in credibility, 
comes along and tells you the fire is approaching your 
estate. Here you might say, " I scarcely know what 
to believe ; but I must act. Indolence is inexcusable 
where there is any preponderance on the side of dan- 
ger. It is safer to act." You are not confirmed in 
your belief, of the advancing conflagration, but you 
are unwise if you neglect exertion. Go now and act 
for your soul. If you tell us that you cannot believe 
the Scriptures, we answer, go and obey them. It is 



CURE OF INFIDELITY. 209 

true, if you are a confirmed disbeliever, we have but 
little hope of your action ; but all who sincerely and 
earnestly obey these precepts, receive the same evi- 
dence of their truth that the man who approaches the 
fire receives of its warmth. If he were to stand at 
a distance and say, " Oh that I could believe there 
was heat in that fire," we might offer many strong 
arguments to prove it, but the most convincing 
measure would be to prevail on him to approach. If 
it were true that he had a strong aversion to the ex- 
ercise of walking, and a dislike to the sight of fire, 
and he were to tell us that he was confident, and 
without a doubt, that no warmth existed there, we 
should have but little hope of prevailing on him to act ; 
nevertheless thorough action would produce a certain 
result. He might advance a few feet, and then call 
out exultingly that he felt no warmth. He might 
approach a short distance again, and then turn away, 
calling out with indignant vehemence, "I knew it 
was so, I feel no heat ;" but all this has been only a 
sham trial. So it is with many w T ho say they have 
complied with the dictates of revelation. It was 
only a half-way obedience, a partial action, a false 
compliance with those blessed commands. All who 
walk up to the fire know its efficacy. So long as they 
remain there, they remain convinced. Those who 
stand nearest have the least perplexing doubt. Read- 
er, do you say to us, " Shall I act, although I 
doubt?" If you doubt, this is the reason why you 
should act speedily and decisively. Let us now tell 
you some things which you believe, and others which 
you know. If you are an atheist, we are not address- 



210 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

ing you just now; but if not, the following facts fit 
you. You believe, 

1. That Grod is a being of purity. You believe, 

2. That if he is pure, he will not be disposed to 
take pollution into his immediate habitation, or near 
to himself. You yourself do not tolerate that which 
you esteem filthy. He may deem that unclean which 
we do not hate. A man hates what a swine does not, 
because of his superiority over that animal ; but the 
Lord's exaltation above us is immeasurable. If you 
say that you cannot understand how that may appear 
sin to God, which seems very passable w T ith us, you 
speak unadvisedly. Now for that which you know : 

1. That if you stood in a room where were col- 
lected a hundred persons, male and female, your fel- 
low-worms of the dust w 7 ho live here below with 
you, all sinners like yourself, you would not be will- 
ing that every word you have uttered, and every 
thought which has passed through your mind for the 
last month, should be told or pictured before them. 
You know, 

2. That if all your actions and all your wishes 
were told to a church full of your fellow-creatures, 
they would not sound well ; you know that you are 
a sinner. "We will prove this to you in another way. 
"We will prove that you know that the magnitude of 
an offence is measured by the excellence of the being 
against ivhom it is committed. You know, 

1. If you were to insult one of the animals of 
the field, it would be a matter of little moment, be- 
cause that four-footed beast is low in the scale of 
existence. You know, 



CURE OP INFIDELITY. 211 

2. If you were to walk up to your fellow-man, 
your equal, and offend him, it would be a more seri- 
ous occurrence, for lie is of a more exalted nature. 
You know, 

3. If a tall seraph from the upper army should 
sail on splendid wings before you, alighting near, on 
an errand of heaven, you would feel less safe in 
offending him, because of his superior excellence. 
You know, 

4. God's purity is unspeakable ; his excellence 
and grandeur are unlimited ; his power and majesty 
are boundless ; all his traits of loveliness and great- 
ness are infinite. Who shall dare offend him ? 

If you do not know something of the real desert 
of sin, at the time of reckoning he will make you 
know it. If what you call a small offence is meas- 
ured by his worth, it becomes unlimited in its ill 
desert. These things you know, and of course, if you 
are not afraid to think, you know that your case may 
be a very unsafe one. You know that perhaps your 
danger may be black and imminent as the silent, but 
advancing cloud. Then act ; take the safer course, 
begin to act, and continue it. Bow and tell Jesus 
Christ all you would tell him if you saw him. Do 
every thing he has directed as scrupulously as you 
should do were you to hear his lips utter the orders. 

Every man may become a Christian. Many will 
not. Every Christian may have the most satisfac- 
tory evidence of experience. Many do not try. If 
you are an atheist, you will be noticed in the next 
chapter. If you are not an atheist, but settled and 
unwavering in your creed of gospel rejection, perhaps 



212 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

the first remedy, external evidence, although the 
weaker of the two, promises more in your case. The 
last remedy will cure any who ivill receive it. No 
matter who you are, atheist or double atheist, if you 
will bend to each order there written, you will be 
cured, and your life will be everlasting. But we 
have very faint hopes that you will come to the light 
after the Holy Spirit has left you. If you are a con- 
firmed atheist, he has left you now ; whether or not 
he will return, he only knows. If you are a con- 
firmed, unwavering Bible hater, yet still believe some 
one made the stars, you believe one truth. The Spirit 
is not gone, but he touches the strings of your soul 
seldom, and but very faintly. " Return unto me, 
and I will return unto you," saith the Lord. There 
is a balm in Gilead; there is a physician there, 
but he requires obedience, and men do not love the 
remedy. 

Some say, "We do not know all the command- 
ments contained in that book, and yet in force." We 
answer, you are not obeying such commands as you 
do know ; you are not trying to fulfil such require- 
ments as are plain before you. That which is lovely 
cannot hurt you. Try it. That which is just can- 
not injure you. Begin it. When that man presented 
you with a cup of water, and you said, "I thank 
you, sir," you did not do wrong. You believe that to 
express gratitude, is not amiss. God gives you many 
cups of water, and tables covered with food. The 
Bible orders you to say, " I thank thee." Let your 
children hear you say this as the favor is repeated. 
Will you begin ? Ah, we fear you do not wish it. 



CURE OF INFIDELITY. 213 

If you will not obey here, we need not repeat the 
hundred orders that follow. You are averse to com- 
pliance ; a secret which you scarcely suspect is, you 
have no relish for doing what God directs you. 

Conclusion. If one man approach the fire and 
declare that its cherishing heat is abundant, another 
may go there if he chooses. If he stand off, calling 
for evidence and declaring that none is given, the 
builder of the fire is not to blame. If, notwithstand- 
ing the fact that not one since the creation ever ap- 
proached closely without making the same avowal, he 
call out that no testimony is offered him, he uttereth 
lies. If he exclaim vociferously, " I know that your 
testimony is all fancy, heated imagination, and fa- 
natical delusion or hypocrisy," and when answered, 
w Then approach and judge for yourself," he still stays 
away mocking, then we can only say, Farewell. 
Faithfulness and truth demand that to that farewell 
be added, Thy blood be upon thine own head. 



214 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 



CHAPTER XLIV. 

ATHEISM. 

Christians usually believe it impossible for any- 
one to become a real atheist. Their minds are di- 
vinely influenced, and they forget what they would be 
capable of believing were they left to themselves. 

The most of wicked men doubt if there are any 
sincere atheists. They are heaven-restrained them- 
selves, but they do not know it. To every uncon- 
verted man, the suggestions and influences of the 
blessed One appear as nothing more than the simple 
operations of his own mind. The ungodly are un- 
conscious of holy persuasions, because it seems to 
them solely and entirely their own mental effort. 
But we say, to the saint and the sinner, there are 
atheists by the million. If you were abandoned, you 
would forthwith become a settled and sincere atheist. 
We agree that many calling themselves atheists are 
not entirely forsaken, and that at times they feel a 
degree of apprehension ; but, notwithstanding this, 
there are armies of atheists. 

For the entire atheist we have no hope. Those 
who die may, and sometimes have been known to re- 
vive ; but when we see our friends expire, our hope 
for them in this life is gone, because the cases of re- 
suscitation are so rare. Omnipotence could restore 
the complete atheist, but we have no reason to ex- 
pect it. 



CURE OF INFIDELITY. . 2lb 

To the partial atheist we say, our hope for 3^ou is 
very feeble ; for a little more, and your head is be- 
neath the billow ; but we ask you to read Paley's 
Natural Theology twice over. We ask you to read 
Dick on the same subject. If these do not influence 
you to try the second remedy, the experimental evi- 
dences of Christianity, then we can only say, fare- 
well. 

We have now done with atheists, and with the 
subject of atheism on their account. Further argu- 
mentation with the atheist we have none ; yet, on 
another account, we must pursue the subject. For 
the sake of the rest of mankind, we take the case of 
the atheist to show the fall of man, to exhibit the 
doctrine of total depravity, to prove what man would 
be without heavenly restraint. To hold up atheism 
as an example illustrative of important truth, may 
require more chapters than one. We have before 
stated, that the clear consciousness and constant recol- 
lection of the fall of man is all-important for those 
inquiring after truth, and for those attempting to 
practise virtue or piety. 

We deem it a momentous duty to look faithfully 
at what men are capable of believing, if left to them- 
selves. Accompany us then through the creed of the 
atheist, and observe the doctrines of holy writ exhib- 
ited in his case. There are crowds of atheists now 
alive, but their race is not yet finished. If there were 
no atheists, it would prove either that man is not a 
fallen creature, or that the Spirit does always strive 
with man so long as he lives on earth. 



216 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 



CHAPTER XLV. 

THE SUBJECT CONTINUED. 

We wish to dwell a while on the belief of the 
atheist, that all may be reminded of the amount of 
evidence man is capable of resisting. Our illustra- 
tions are of course drawn from things around us. 
We must endeavor not to write in the language of 
the chemist, or of the philosopher, but to use the 
plain, every-day dialect understood by the little boy, 
or the uneducated, without assistance. It is neces- 
sary that we should not be misunderstood in our 
most ordinary expressions. In the first place, then, 
we must define fully what meaning we attach to the 
word accident or casualty. 

If we see a quantity of bricks overthrown in the 
street, and hurled along the earth in impetuous con- 
fusion, we call their position the result of accident or 
casualty. We mean, that mind was not employed in 
directing their location. 

If we see them lodged in a shapely wall, we at 
once assert that their position was the result of 
thought, and not of accident. 

We have seen the forest where the sweeping tor- 
nado had snapped the trees, and hurled them across 
each other in tangled prostration. We then call the 
particular location of those timbers accidental, mean- 
ing that design, thought, or plan, did not effect it. 
We have seen trees ranged over each other, and 



CURE OF INFIDELITY. 217 

squared into a house : then we did not believe their 
position casual, we had no doubt but thought was 
employed in their arrangement. 

The atheist is one who believes there is no Grod. 
He believes that man is the highest being in exist- 
ence. He believes that the things we see either 
came into being of themselves, or have been always 
here ; for he usually believes they are here noiv. It 
is not material in the controversy, whether he con- 
tends that the world, or the matter of which it is 
formed, is of recent date, or that it has been here 
from eternity ; but it is more common with them at 
the present day, to contend that matter has always 
existed. Of these, we shall chiefly take notice. We 
shall do no more than tell the creed of the atheist, 
and the creed of the Christian again and again, plac- 
ing them frequently side by side. 

We name different facts telling first what the 
Christian believes concerning them. In looking for 
these facts, it matters not where we begin. The 
objects nearest us are our choice ; we have only to 
aim at being understood by the unlettered, with im- 
mediate ease, and we had better pain the ear of the 
scientific by the coarseness of our words, or method, 
than to fail of comprehension from the unlearned. 

Young reader, when you look abroad you see 
very many breathing animals around you. You 
know that the air we breathe is not fit to breathe 
again, so that if closely confined, although we might 
not feel injured for the first few minutes, yet, after 
a time we must die. You may not be aware that 
the air you breathe is so totally changed, that you 

Cause antl Care. 1 



218 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

would expire forthwith were you to continue its use. 
It is true, that were you to receive it hack again into 
your lungs, unmixed with the other air around you, 
it would cause your death. There is no danger that 
this will happen. Those who know nothing of these 
facts are mostly safe ; "because in the action of "breath- 
ing it is thrown some distance from the face, and 
even when the head is covered, it cannot he drawn 
hack again, without receiving much of the other 
healthful air near us, along with the draught. But 
where many live near us, it is natural to inquire why 
the atmosphere is not so poisoned, frequently, as to 
cause our death. So it would: even on the muster- 
ground, where hundreds crowd into a circle, it would 
he felt ; but, in the first place, by breathing, this air is 
made a little heavier than it was before. If it is only 
a little heavier than the common air around us, then 
it will sink down to the earth ; and it does thus fall. 
This increase of weight causes the air which has 
been once used in the crowded room, to sink down 
to the floor. It seeks every crevice to pass lower, or 
it rolls out of the door and finds the earth. This in- 
crease of weight is either plan or accident. It is a 
little matter in one sense, but it saves too many 
millions of lives not to be, too, extremely fortunate, or 
very kind. 

Again, it is natural to ask why we do not dread 
the increase of this altered and unwholesome air. 
"Why does it not accumulate, rising higher and 
higher, until reaches above us, and we sink ? This 
would be the case : animals not erect, that breathe, 
carrying their nostrils nearer the earth, would perish 



CURE OF INFIDELITY. 219 

first, and man at last would fall, were it not for a 
few additional casualties, or mercies, which we will 
now enumerate. 

First, when this air, thus destroyed, reaches the 
earth, the grass which is there drinks it up. It goes 
into the pores of weeds, plants, and vegetation in 
general, and two blessings result ; the poisoned air is 
used, and taken out of our way, while it enters into 
the composition of that which grows, and aids its 
rapid increase, as a most kindly manure. 

But again, there is a region where winter reaches, 
and destroys the earth's green covering. Neverthe- 
less winter is not feared, for it is a kind design or a 
fortunate perchance, that water will absorb this gas. 
The snow is on the ground, and you need not fear. 
It has rained, or the frost has fallen and again dis- 
solved, and you need not fear ; the wind is blowing 
towards the surface of the river, or the distant 
lake, etc. 

Sometimes, in seeking the lowest situations, this 
heavy air sinks into a well, where there is neither 
grass, grain, or water to absorb it, and there it 
remains and threatens the incautious adventurer. 
These facts, in one view, are little things ; but the 
continuance of the human family depends on their 
existence : of course they must be either wise, or for- 
tunate. 

There is another kind of air, or gas, which is 
equally deadly, called by chemists, hydrogen gas. 
This would destroy us, if plentifully used at once. 
Those who wade in streams, and walk on the de- 
caying leaves on the bottom, have seen it bubbling 



220 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

up to the surface. It will burn if the torch is applied. 
Every thing that rots will, like the leaves we have 
mentioned, give out or produce this unhealthy gas in 
abundance. If we then look around and notice how 
many trees, and weeds, and leaves, and chips, and 
animal substances, etc., are constantly dissolving, we 
may well inquire again, why we are not all destroyed 
with rapid and cureless devastation. So should we 
be, were it not on account of certain circumstances, 
which we will not pass by. It chances, or it was 
contrived, that this gas is lighter than the air around 
us ; of course it will rise up towards the clouds. What- 
ever is lighter than water will swim, and whatever is 
lighter than air will rise towards the top of the atmos- 
phere. This gas is so much lighter than the com- 
mon air, that it ascends swiftly past our faces, and 
floats beyond our reach. 

Those who are disposed to think, might inform us 
that their fears were not at an end, for fortunate or 
kind as is this regulation, still the top of the air may, 
in time, be overburdened, and this cumbrous poison 
descend to our extermination. If we are saved for a 
time, what is to continue our relief? The answer is, 
that two small facts exist which save our earth. One 
is, that through casualty, or through wisdom, it is so 
contrived, that this gas when united with another gas, 
called oxygen, already and always floating at the top 
of the air, or in the regions of the clouds, forms water. 
Water is formed by these two pressed closely together, 
but the pressure must be hard, to make them unite. 
The question next is, how this powerful pressure is 
effected high up in the air. 



CURE OF INFIDELITY. 221 

There is a fluid in nature called electricity, com- 
monly called lightning. The unlearned or the young 
person can remember that this electricity or this 
lightning can strike any thing very hard, for he has 
seen where it has shivered the hardest oak. This 
lightning, when it dashes from the cloud down to the 
earth, strikes the tree. When it flies from cloud to 
cloud, it strikes these two kinds of air we have 
named, presses them suddenly and powerfully to- 
gether, and forms drops of water. Young reader, if 
you cannot understand this, there is one thing which 
you know about it. You have seen it rain hard just 
after a flash of lightning and a peal of thunder. 
Much of that water was just then formed.^ 

The poisonous air, hydrogen gas, is removed from 
threatening us, and at the same time the shower is in- 
creased to fertilize the field. The crop is augment- 
ed. The table of the atheist is covered with tasteful 
viands. He fills himself ; thanks no one ; stares at 
his superabundant mercies, and says, "There is no 
God !» 

Two facts we should notice just in connection 
with these items. First, that if the first-named gas, 
or kind of air from which we are saved by its weight, 
and by its being removed through the instrumentality 
of plants and water, had been lighter than the atmos- 
phere, so as to ascend above us, this would have been 

* We are told that recent discoveries evince that the sur- 
plus drops are not thus suddenly formed by compression. Be 
it so. Dispose of the rising of hydrogen in any other way, 
no matter how; as soon as the truth is reached it indicates 
a contriver as strikingly as any mistaken theory could pos- 
sibly do. 



222 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

no remedy; for the electricity in the upper air could 
not dispose of it, and the mist of the clouds alone and 
unassisted would be insufficient. Secondly, if the 
last-named gas, hydrogen, had been heavier than 
atmospheric air, so as to seek the lowest situation, 
this would not have relieved us, because plants and 
water would not absorb it ; and on the surface of the 
ground, the electric fluid does not play so as to dash 
it into the shape of water. 

Reader, we have noticed some ten or twelve of 
those arrangements, without which the world could 
not continue the habitation of man. The Christian 
believes these things were wisely and kindly plan- 
ned. The atheist thinks them fortuitous. The next 
truth important in this discussion, and which stands 
■ out before you is, that these facts and necessary cir- 
cumstances belong to every thing you see ; you can- 
not point at a visible object, you cannot think of a 
tangible substance on the face of the earth, that is 
not surrounded with laws or properties without which 
the comfort or the safety of the earth would sink. It 
is important that you should be familiar with this 
truth. We will ask your attention to it again, after 
we shall have noticed a few more examples of what 
we have been considering:. 

Other examples of casualties, or of mercies. 
There was a man who walked into his harvest-field 
as the sun arose. As the day advanced, the heat in- 
creased intensely. If it had continued to increase as 
rapidly throughout the day as it did during the first 
four hours, that man with his neighbors would have 
been withered to death. Young reader, you can un- 



CUKE OF INFIDELITY. 223 

derstand the reason why the inhabitants of the earth 
are not destroyed every warm day. 

If you will, in the middle of a sultry day, sprinkle 
water over the floor, you will find in a short time that it 
is gone, and the floor is dry. It has evaporated ; that 
is, it has turned into mist and sailed away. This is 
the way the clouds are formed: the sun shines on 
the wet earth, the damp leaves ; on lakes, rivers, 
oceans, and smaller streams — the water is converted 
into mist or cloud, which, is so light that it rises and 
swims in the air. 

You remember that while your floor was becom- 
ing dry, the room was rendered more cool — the air in 
the room parted with, much of its heat. The reason 
of this is, that while water is turning into vapor, it 
absorbs much of the heat of the air around it ; or in 
other words, while water evaporates, it absorbs or 
drinks up the heat or caloric near it. Now apply 
these facts. The day begins to grow warm, but 
there hang dew-drops on the grass, and as this water 
becomes mist it absorbs much heat, and thus checks 
the advancing warmth of the day. We should be 
scorched into cinders, but there are large oceans and 
many smaller collections of water, and as surely as 
water is heated, it will evaporate ; and as certainly 
as it evaporates, it will use the heat nearest it, and 
we need not fear the sun in his upward march 
through a cloudless sky. 

There was a man who left his field as the sun 
was sinking in the west. He looked over his crop in 
the month of June, and its green wave delighted his 
eye. The air grew colder as the night approached, 



224 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

and still colder as it advanced, so as to render it cer- 
tain that if the cold thus increased, before the night 
was over frost would be there, and would blacken 
all the hopes of the husbandman. 

But the cold did not thus increase. May we not 
inquire why it did not ? "Would it not be stupidity 
to neglect such thoughts ? Young reader, on the 
day before, to save us from an unfriendly heat, water 
had turned into mist and floated through the air, 
drinking up its superabundant warmth. At night, as 
it becomes more cold from the sun's absence, this 
mist goes back again into the form of water, giving 
out again all the heat it had before absorbed. It 
now hangs in dew-drops from the quivering leaf, and 
saves it from the frost. As surely as water seizes on 
the heat when it turns to mist, so certainly it gives 
it out again when it assumes the shape of dew. By 
these facts, little as they appear, our bodies are saved 
every summer's day from suffocating heat, in all its 
red intensity; and every cold autumnal night the 
sustenance of approaching months is sheltered from 
the blackening frost of winter. 

The Christian who thinks over these things, feels 
that he is safe. He lays his hands across his breast, 
and with the smile of meek serenity he says, and he 
feels, "My Father is truly kind." 

The atheist sits near a well-covered table, feeling 
more haughty as he fattens. He turns his broad, 
dull eye towards the throne of heaven, and says, 
" There is no God," and he feels, " I am wise." 

Similar dangers threaten, and similar providences^ 
or accidents, watch over us during every hour of winter. 



CURE OF INFIDELITY. 225 

December's sun disappears, and should the cold 
increase through the night as it does for the first few 
hours, we could not fancy the consequences. Noth- 
ing could save us. Fuel and clothing could not pro- 
tect us from freezing to death. The cold does not 
thus increase. "Why does it not ? Because the 
water in the earth, and on the earth, begins to freeze; 
and water as it freezes, or as it approaches a freezing- 
state, gives out its caloric, that is, cold water is 
made colder by parting with the heat in it. As 
water freezes, the advancing cold is checked. The 
ocean gives up its heat throughout the whole of 
every winter. Earth could not be tenanted by man, 
if this were not the case. 

There is another day in winter comparatively 
warm. This is called a thaw. We should suffer 
from unnatural and unseasonable heat, were it not for 
another diminutive, but momentous circumstance ; 
that is, as snow melts and as ice dissolves, as frozen 
earth softens and as frost disappears, they all absorb 
the heat nearest them. The increasing warmth is 
thus abated for our entire safety. Reader, it is thus 
with every thing you see. On your right hand or on 
your left, above you or below, the smallest object on 
which your eye may rest is encircled by wise laws. 
If altered, the world would be destroyed. We can see 
no end to these kind contrivances ; volumes could not 
detail them, for they are numerous as the objects of 
creation. Reader, we will not detain you here much 
longer. We would not pursue this part of our subject 
any further, were it not for the purpose of holding out 
a few more examples to show that the earth could not 
10* 



226 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

continue as it now is, if any thing you look at were — 
had happened to be — made different in any way. 

A few more examples. You remember that some 
things mix with water very reluctantly, and others 
with great rapidity. If you will take sulphur and 
water and bring them together, you will find them 
commingle with great difficulty. If you will place 
water and sugar in the same vessel, you will find they 
unite at once. The soil you walk on every day is like 
neither of these substances named. Its aptitude to 
mix with water is of a middle cast. There are three 
things over which we have reason to rejoice ; those 
who think not on them, have the sin either of ingrati- 
tude or stupidity. Let us look at them in order. 

1. If the earth we cultivate had chanced to re- 
ceive water into its embrace as slowly as that sul- 
phur, our showers would rush from our hills and swell 
our streams, but they would never reach the roots of 
our corn, and famine would unpeople the earth. 

2. If our soil should unite with water as water 
does with sugar or other substances, you would not 
dare step from your door after it had rained ; you 
would sink in the mire of your yard. You could not 
plough your field. The vivifying shower would be 
an incurable calamity. 

3. If our soil should receive the water faster, or 
not so fast ; if it should refuse to part with it, or 
part with it more speedily, we could not continue 
here. The consequences would destroy us. 

But we cannot travel over all creation. "We need 
not keep in this path longer. Look at any thing you 
please, and it will not do to alter it. If it has been 



CURE OF INFIDELITY. 227 

here from all eternity, then it is unspeakably fortu- 
nate that it chanced to be always as it is ; for had it 
happened otherwise, we never could have lived here. 
Suppose you were to alter the density, the thickness, 
or consistency, or solidity of water or of air. Fancy 
the water of our earth more dense than it is, its 
transparency would disappear. It would hold in sus- 
pension, that is, floating through it, substances which 
would forbid us to drink. Diminish its density, and 
your vessels would sink, you yourself could not swim, 
and your streams you could not pass. Similar evils 
would attend us were we to alter the consistency of 
air, or wood, or metal. 

The thinking Christian can look at nothing which 
does not remind him unceasingly that his Father 
plans for him attentively, and calls for a return of his 
affections.^ The atheist never had a more lovely 

* When the pious agriculturist holds his plough, or stands 
with his chain or his axe in his hand, how many thoughts may 
move his gratitude. Out of the thirty metals, one is capable 
of welding — it is iron. One other metal may be welded, but 
it is scarce, and never could be used for our domestic wants, 
if iron were removed from us. If iron had been made like 
lead, or silver, or zinc, or gold, incapable of welding, how could 
we make many things that are needed hourly ? But that this 
metal of which our ploughs or saws are formed is susceptible 
of welding, would not avail us much were it scarce as almost 
every other. But iron may be dug from a thousand hills, 
thanks to our Father. However, it is still true, that plentiful 
as is the iron, and firmly as it may be made to hold to iron, yet 
it would do us little comparative good if, like lead, it lacked 
tenacity, toughness. But of the twenty-nine metals iron is, 

1 . More plentiful than all the rest. 

2. It is more tenacious and durable. 

3. It alone may be mended by the process of welding. 



228 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

thought than this, "It happened well enough, and 
glory to myself, for I enjoy it." 

The second part of this picture. The atheist is 
not moved by any of the considerations that we have 
named. They make no impression on his mind. He 
looks at the mercies we have named, which are 
secured to us by what is termed the laws of nature, 
but he looks no further back than the law. He is 
like the man who saw a wheel revolve which accom- 
plished much ; he saw the work performed, but never 
looked beyond the wheel. He dreamed not of a more 
distant actor. At last being told that the wheel was 
moved, he did look more attentively, and saw another 
revolving wheel which moved the first. This he con- 
cluded was the author of the work, and never could 
be prevailed on to suppose the second wheel was also 
moved, for in the apartment where he stood he saw 
no other power or acting force. Not only atheists 
and half-way atheists, but millions of others, and 
even professors of religion, get to staring at laws, and 
speaking of laws, and thinking of laws of nature, 
until they forget the hand that moves the laws. They 
never think of the mind that planned the laws. Oth- 
ers do not use the word law so readily as the word 
nature. "Whatever comes to pass, they call it the 
effort of nature. Whatever pleasing property belongs 
to any thing which advances their comfort or secures 
their safety, when they speak of it they say, it is its 
nature. In this expression they would be correct to 
a certain extent, were it not that they never see any 
further. Nature is as far as their mental eyesight 
ever penetrates. Whatever meaning they attach to 



CURE OF INFIDELITY. 229 

the word nature or to the word laws, they weave that 
meaning into a broad curtain, and hang it up before 
them, or they cast it over every object in creation, so 
that if they see through it, the view is dim and dis- 
colored. But there is a way to tear their veil. The 
Christian or the thinking man may snatch it away, 
so that even the half atheist must see, or turn away 
from the view. The entirely abandoned by the Spirit 
of God will never see again. With them, an absurd- 
ity is easier of belief than a rational occurrence ; a 
falsehood is a thousand times more captivating than 
the truth. 

There are facts of endless extent, over which the 
song of laivs, laws, nature, nature, cannot be sung. 
To these facts we now advert. 

There are mercies and arrangements indispensa- 
ble to our comfort or our earthly existence, in the 
production of which the rules of attraction and of 
motion, of adhesion and affinity, in all their ten thou- 
sand bearings, had no concern. To these we now 
turn in search of examples from the boundless mass. 

Blessings and mercies not produced by any of 

THE PRINCIPLES CALLED THE LAWS OF NATURE. Young 

reader, there is a part of South America where it does 
not rain. Shall that beautiful region be without 
what is necessary to man's life ? No, it has been 
cared for. If you will take the map of South Amer- 
ica, you may discover that her loftiest mountains do 
not, like the mountains of other lands, run in the mid- 
dle, or near the middle of the continent. The Andes 
run along the edge, almost, of the land. You have 
heard of the trade-winds. The Creator is kind to 



230 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

the sailor. He fans his cheek as he blasphemes his 
name. The sailor could not cross the tropical seas if 
the winds were still or uncertain. But travellers tell 
us that these trade-winds, so important to those who 
go down to the sea in ships, earry the clouds in such 
a direction and with so much rapidity, that they are 
borne past a portion of South America. This kind- 
ness to a part of our race, or this conjoined with other 
causes, is the reason why the showers do not refresh 
the fields of another part. The Andes are much 
higher than our North American mountains, and there 
seems to be a good reason why we should rejoice at it. 
They rise above the common region of the clouds. 
It is said by those who have been there, that the 
winds bear the clouds against the sides of these moun- 
tains, which are too high for them to pass with facil- 
ity. It is stated that the clouds are accumulated 
there, resulting in what might be termed an almost 
perpetual thunder-storm. It is said that the rivers 
are in a state of freshet, and are larger in proportion 
to their length, than our North American streams. 
The map says this to the eye. It is said that the 
sun beams on the slope of the Andes, the south-east- 
ern slope, thirty or sixty miles broad and many hun- 
dred miles in length, dripping with incessant rains, 
until evaporation fills the air with mist. This floats 
off towards the otherwise arid provinces, and abun- 
dant dews water the fields. These abundant dews 
supply the place of rain. The green carpet is spread 
under the feet of the man who walks there. The 
fruit-bearing tree waves its beautiful branches over 
his head, but he never supposes for a moment that a 



CURE OF INFIDELITY. 231 

benevolent Contriver cared for his comfort. He thinks 
nature affords us food. 

Before we make inferences, we will look at an- 
other portion of the earth where it does not rain. It 
does not rain in Egypt, and there is no mountain in 
the proper place to intercept the cloud, nor is there 
any current of passing clouds to be there condensed, 
even had the Andes lifted their heads along the shores 
of the Red sea. No cause, or combination of causes 
is found powerful enough to water plentifully the 
fields of Egypt, yet it has been called the granary of 
the world. 

This is owing to a number of circumstances, out 
of which we will notice only four or five. 1. Egypt 
is unlike every or any other kingdom of which we 
have read, in being not level merely, but fiat enough 
to be overflowed. 2. A river runs through the mid- 
dle, large enough to flood a wide range of the earth's 
surface. 3. The mountains of the Moon invite the 
clouds, or a number of causes unite to produce the 
result. It rains there with sufficient profusion to 
swell a river high enough to cover a kingdom. The 
Nile rises in the mountains of the Moon. 4. The 
distance from where the Nile receives the rain to 
Egypt, is sufficiently protracted. It takes the flood 
several months to descend, so that the waters do not 
reach the fields where they are needed too soon, or at 
an improper season of the year. 5. The rains fall at 
the proper season of the year, and in sufficient abun- 
dance. 

"When we tell the atheist of the kindness of our 
Father, in causing the grain to grow that we may be 



232 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

fed, he replies, that " nature supplies our wants," that 
"it is the nature of the soil and the shower to pro- 
duce vegetation." It is according to what he calls 
"the laws of nature." Now, dear friend, you have 
mind enough, we have no doubt, to understand that 
if the atheist were to tell us of some law which pro- 
duced the Andes, and reared them of a given height, 
we should desire to know why this law did not produce 
a similar mountain on the plains of Egypt? If any 
one could tell us how nature contrived to spread out 
the flat of Egypt to receive the coming flood, we 
must wonder why nature did not level the hills and 
mountains of South America. Why did not inun- 
dation answer on the coast of Chili, and dew upon 
the sands of Egypt? 

When facts like these are brought before us — and 
the world is covered with them — there remains no 
other possible alternative but to say, "It happened 
that it never rains in Egypt. It chanced that the 
country was flat, it being the only country that 
needed to be thus outspread. The Andes ran in a 
fortunate direction, and they happened to be higher 
than our mountains, or they would not intercept the 
teeming cloud. The contingent rains, far up the 
Nile, chanced to fall at the season which just an- 
swers. Luckily, these rains do not fall as often as 
in other sections, or two overflowings might happen 
in a year, the last drowning the crop which the first 
had fostered," etc. You can begin to perceive what 
incredibilities the mind forsaken of divine influences 
can entertain. The earth is overspread with such 
things as we have been noticing. Then you may 



CURE OF INFIDELITY. 233 

begin to suspect that the train of enormous absurdi- 
ties which the atheist must believe is endless. 

We would not weary you with voluminous details, 
but we wish you to look fairly at the depravity of 
man. We must point you to similar illustrations 
and facts, such as we have endeavored to improve. 

There is a region where the inhabitants cannot 
say, " It rains not on us," but they must say, " The 
timber grows not here." Greenland is without a for- 
est. Do you ask, how are their habitations warmed 
in winter ? Sailors tell us that train-oil is their fuel. 
But wood is wanting. Their houses must be cov- 
ered ; their spears and javelins must have handles. 
Without domestic or hunting utensils, boats or fish- 
ing-tackle, their homes cannot be tenanted ; without 
wood these things cannot be made. Travellers tell 
us that a certain current of the ocean, or certain 
winds, or both united, bear along in a proper direc- 
tion the once stately tree, and another and another 
with abundant constancy, and lodge the needed 
forest between the islands. There it remains until 
needed by those whom the Lord forgets not. The 
soil does not nourish the needed oak for their con- 
venience, but the billow obeys his voice and bears it 
to them. 

If you had no resource for fuel but train-oil, you 
could not get that, for the whale is ordered to swim 
nearest to those who most need his flesh. No trees 
are thus borne along the shores of France, or Spain, 
or England, or perhaps any other nation. They are 
not needed, but in the frozen climes. Where these 
trees are torn from, or how they are swept away, we 



234 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

are not commonly told, and it matters not, so that 
the Greenlander fails not to receive his mercies. If 
other shores were naked, and forests waved not there, 
they would not be supplied as is this land of snow, 
for ocean's current is not freighted thus with trees, 
or it does not bear in the right direction, or the 
islands do not stand so as to form a storehouse for 
the timber. Reader, while looking at these facts, as 
they are scattered all over the earth, it is evident 
enough that our Parent designed it all in kindness. 
To believe otherwise requires an appetite for untruth 
that no man need covet. 

While stating that these mind-exhibiting con- 
trivances were scattered all over the earth, we 
scarcely crossed the threshold of reality. The train 
of thought-evincing facts stretches from world to 
world, and extends from star to star. 

Reader, we will show that those who receive and 
love nonsense as extensive as the world we inhabit, 
do not stop at that achievement. Their credulity is 
capacious enough to swallow absurdities as broad as 
creation. 

The truth-hater overcomes his difficulties, al- 
though they are as wide as the universe, and as nu- 
merous as the objects of which creation is composed. 
The scientific reader must allow us to depart at will 
from the language of astronomy, when speaking of 
distant worlds, so as to be understood by the little 
boy or the unread investigator. We must address 
the child in the manner of children's converse. 

Young reader, there are certain first principles 
which you must understand and keep in memory, 



CURE OF INFIDELITY. 235 

before you can profit by certain pleasing information. 
You are aware that the author of an almanac must 
know much of the sun, and moon, and other worlds, 
which you do not. He tells you of an eclipse many 
months or years before it takes place. He tells you 
to a minute when it will begin, how much of the 
sun or moon will be darkened, and when it will 
cease, etc. The reason he can do this is, he has 
looked through a telescope, and has found out the 
distance of the sun and of the moon, how large they 
are, etc. Astronomers can see through those glasses 
worlds which we cannot see with the naked eye ; and 
they have discovered many facts concerning distant 
worlds, which seem strange to those who have not 
read, or who have not looked through the telescope. 
These are the astronomical facts which you are de- 
sired to mark attentively : 

1. Our sun is many thousand times larger than 
the world we walk on. 

2. Our earth flies entirely around the sun in one 
enormous circular sweep, once every year. 

3. There are some worlds much nearer to our sun 
than we are, and flying around it. We must notice 
them one by one, beginning with the nearest. 

First, there is a world smaller than our earth, 
a beautiful little world, which flies around the sun at 
the distance of almost forty millions of miles. This 
is much nearer the sun than we are. Astronomers 
have chosen to name this little world Mercury. It 
has no moon. It does not need one ; because it is so 
close to the sun that it has many times the light and 
heat which we enjoy. 



236 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

Secondly, if you will come some twenty millions 
of miles farther from the sun, you will pass another 
beautiful world just about the size of the one we live 
on. It is the same that we see so often and call the 
evening star. Astronomers have named it Venus. 
It is more than sixty millions of miles from the sun. 
Although this is a great distance, yet it is nearer 
the sun than we are, and has more light without a 
moon than we have with one. It does not need a 
moon, and it has none. 

Thirdly, the next world we come to is our earth. 
We are the third in order from the sun, and ninety- 
five millions of miles from that luminary. "We have 
a moon, and it is of great service to us. 

Fourthly,^ if we pass on from the sun, almost 
four hundred millions of miles beyond where we are, 
we reach a world as large as fifteen hundred of our 

* The smaller planets between us and Jupiter, we have 
passed over. The unread could not easily understand the 
facts which it would have been necessary to state concerning 
these worlds, had we mentioned them. A moon of any size 
near enough to Mars, would pull him from his orbit, and do 
him other incurable injury. But we have no doubt that by the 
density of his atmosphere, or in some other way, this want is 
made good. Astronomers believe that it is atmospheric con- 
sistence which has tinged with red, and thus given name to 
this world. As it regards the other four little worlds, we have 
reason, when we look at crossing orbits and other facts, to be- 
lieve that two of these worlds were once but one ; and that 
the other two were the satellites to this now exploded planet. 
This discussion we do not enter. It does not materially affect 
our inquiry, therefore we have passed it by. We have one 
perhaps to add in connection with another. Perhaps a world 
once rolled there, and was shivered. Perhaps its inhabitants 
forgot their God, and at last denied him, even his existence. 



CURE OF INFIDELITY. 237 

earth. This has been named Jupiter — almost five 
hundred millions of miles from the sun. It must 
need a moon indeed. It has four. But according to 
the laws of attraction, and the principles of astrono- 
my, four large or serviceable moons would drag a 
world like ours to fearful ruin. The remedy is the 
size of Jupiter. This world, with so many moons, 
is — by chance ? — so large and ponderous, that it 
moves on unwaveringly. 

Some have avowed, and with reason on their side, 
that at a distance so enormous, even four moons can- 
not make up the want, and afford a supply of com- 
forts such as we enjoy. 

Others answer, that the nights of that world are 
never long. Each side of that cold planet is exposed 
to the face of the sun every four or five hours. 

Fifthly, if we go from the sun nine hundred mill- 
ions of miles, we come to a stupendous world, as 
large as a thousand of this ; it has seven moons, and 
other contrivances are plainly visible, which must 
make up for want of light and heat that would be 
felt without them. 

Sixthly, go from the sun eighteen hundred mill- 
ions of miles, and we find a large and beautiful 
planet. Six moons have been seen, and how many 
more may be there, which distance renders invisible 
to us, we are unable to say. Also, what additional 
plans and arrangements are there furnishing a boun- 
tiful supply of heat and light, our short telescopes will 
not enable us to determine. 

"We must here pause and ask the reader to make 
one deduction from the few facts which we have 



238 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

selected from the multitude. Before this conclusion 
is drawn, however, some items must be recalled to 
the reader's remembrance. 

The atheist does not tell us of any law of nature, 
of any attraction, or natural tendency of things, which 
secured it from all eternity that Mercury should have 
no moon, or that we should have one. We never 
have heard, and never expect to hear, any other than 
two causes referred to as effecting these things. One 
is, that the kind Creator was also wise, and that he 
ordered seven moons to sail around Saturn, and only 
four around Jupiter, because Saturn was almost 
as far again from the sun as the other. The other 
cause is, that it has happened so always. It has 
been fortunately right from everlasting. The three 
last worlds mentioned did not chance to be smaller 
than they are. 

The first three worlds named are not as large as 
the others. Had they been thus massive, they would 
have fallen into the sun, or their motions must have 
been increased, altering our seasons, and shortening 
them so as to require an endless train of changes 
throughout all the elements. 

We have now glanced at fifteen or twenty items — 
chances, or mercies — any one of which, altered in any 
way, would destroy a world. The catalogue does not 
stop here. Millions and millions would not fill up the 
list. We only point to a few palpable illustrations, 
and we have not time to do more, even if the reader 
had patience to examine a long detail. We could 
not name a thousand on a page, much less specify a 
thousand facts. But what would a thousand be out 



CURE OF INFIDELITY. 239 

of the countless millions that exist in every direction ? 
"We have a few more examples to present, but must 
first mention the inference we have promised to re- 
quest of the reader. The following inference we 
cannot ourselves avoid, and we ask the reader if his 
deductions from facts noticed are not the same. 

Inference. When we find a heart which loves 
any amount of falsehood, a credulity broader than a 
hundred oceans, a predilection for enormous untruth 
reaching across a thousand worlds, we must infer 
that, uninfluenced by the Spirit of eternal truth, man 
u loves darkness," and not the light. 

A preference for darkness is depravity. If de- 
praved, man is fallen, for the pure hand of his Sover- 
eign made him not so at first. 

More examples. Reader, we would not proceed 
in this detail, were it not that we are all prone to 
forgetful ness where important truth is concerned. 

We have told you that the train of mercies, which 
the atheist calls chances, is endless. We desire not 
merely to state, but to impress it upon you. Dear 
reader, if you choose you may inquire after an astron- 
omer's glass and look through it. You may see our 
sun and twenty-nine worlds, large enough to be in- 
habited, sailing round him. This makes thirty orbs 
which excite our wonder and employ our admiring 
gaze. We cannot write concerning thirty worlds, 
but we may notice one or two, to remind you that 
wisdom and goodness have been extended to the rest. 
We will look for a short time at the worlds nearest 
us, our own earth and its moon. Our moon flies 
round our earth at the distance of two hundred 



240 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

and forty thousand miles. Its diameter is twenty- 
one hundred and eighty miles. 

Some facts to be stated may be such as those who 
have never read astronomy understand with difficulty, 
but in these cases they may take the simple assertion 
of authors, because they are items concerning which 
Christians and unbelievers do not disagree. We can- 
not call attention to one fact in a million, but advert 
to a few, which will bring us once more to the in- 
evitable conclusion. 

1. The moon moves around us, flying from west 
to east : had it happened to move from north to 
south, we should have been two weeks without be- 
holding her silver visage. 

2. Had it chanced that the course of the moon's 
orbit had been from north to south, she would not 
shine on those living near the poles for fourteen days 
alternately. 

3. If the moon had been placed at a greater dis- 
tance from us, she would have appeared smaller, and 
her light would have shone more faintly. 

4. If the moon were much nearer us than she 
now is, her light, in many of her phases, would shine 
more dimly, because, as it regards the sun's rays, 
the angle of reflection must thus be rendered more 
obtuse. 

5. If the moon were much larger than it is, it 
would pull the earth from her proper orbit, unless 
an alteration in the earth's size and motion, reach- 
ing on to and requiring an alteration in every thing 
else, were accomplished. 

6. The number of particulars in which we are 



CURE OF INFIDELITY. 241 

benefited by the ebbing and flowing of the tides, we 
shall not endeavor to enumerate. One advantage we 
must state. Water is kept pure by motion. The 
quiet pond stagnates and interrupts the health of 
those who live near it. The river putrefies not, for 
its current agitates and its constant rolling clarifies 
its waters. The lake is not only shaken by vehe- 
ment winds, but its waters are unceasingly changed 
for a new supply. Evaporation diminishes, and trib- 
utary rivers supply the waste. The lakes are thus 
becoming new lakes without interruption or delay. 
The ocean is too deep to be thus changed ; and al- 
though the storms which help to preserve the lake 
by agitation, do also shake the ocean, this alone does 
not seem to be entirely sufficient. The ocean, how- 
ever, is salt and never entirely still. These two to- 
gether secure its purity. But where the river meets 
the ocean, and the ocean meets the river, they mutu- 
ally still each other. The extended promontory or 
the crooked shore often shelters the river's mouth 
from the wind, so that the water there is not only 
devoid of agitation from the river's current, which is 
impeded by the ocean's waters, but it is almost devoid 
of salt, just where the gale is kept off by the hills 
from shaking its quiet surface. Then shall the slug- 
gish waters putrefy, diseases in proportion spread, and 
render the shores of our ocean scarcely habitable? 
No; the tides dash the waters up the river till they 
meet its current and roll them back a^ain often 
enough to prevent the threatened stagnation. 

The moon's attraction calls up our tides ; let us 
then rejoice because we chance to have a moon. 

Cause and Cure. 1 ], 



242 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

8. If the moon were nearer to us, it would in- 
crease the tide so as to overflow much of our beauti- 
ful and fertile shore. 

9. If the moon were larger, this same serious evil 
must result. It would be a sad inconvenience in- 
deed, were the waters elevated each day only a few 
feet higher. 

10. If the moon were smaller, or if it were more 
distant, the tides would be so diminished as to answer 
little purpose. 

11. If the axis of our earth had happened to be 
uninclined, only that portion of our globe could have 
been inhabited called the torrid zone, and there no 
change of season would have occurred. 

12. If our earth's diurnal motion had been more 
rapid, shortening our night and day, much of our 
middle earth — the equatorial regions — would have 
been drowned continually by the elevated ocean. 

13. If this rotary motion were more slow, the 
same deluge would ruin much of the region which 
we inhabit and that which is north of us. 

Conclusion. Dear friend, is it necessary that we 
should continue to enumerate such facts ? We know 
not where they would end. The catalogue has no 
termination on which the eye of man has ever rested. 
Volumes have been filled concerning similar arrange- 
ments visible on our earth, such that were they altered 
in any way, devastation and ruin must ensue. After 
these volumes were filled, it was seen that the thresh- 
old was not passed. Only the introduction ever could 
be penned. After reminding you that those who con- 
tend that all these things have always been as they 



CURE OF INFIDELITY. 243 

now are, must believe that it is exceedingly fortunate 
that they were right and happily convenient from all 
eternity, we shall ask the reader a few important 
questions. 

Question 1. What do you think of the condition 
of the soul which, rather than receive the truth re- 
vealed to us concerning a kind Father, and a wise 
and glorious Creator, will believe in a volume of hap- 
py accidents and fortunate occurrences, no matter 
whether they took place yesterday or always ex- 
isted ? 

Question 2. If this volume is gathered from the 
surface of our earth, how much must it be increased 
if written concerning every one of the thirty worlds, 
save one, which move around our sun ? 

Question 3. What do you think of the condition 
of the soul which, rather than worship a kind Father 
and wise Creator, will devour thirty large volumes of 
nonsense, or believe in thirty endless catalogues of 
happy contingences, without which the world where 
they are seen could not exist ? 

Question 4. Take the telescope and look at the 
stars; you will find they are all suns. We have 
reason to be assured that many of them are many 
times larger than our sun. But if we were to con- 
jecture concerning the number of worlds — guessing 
from analogy — cherished by each sun, it would not 
be an unfair supposition to say, " I will allow that 
each sun I see was not made in vain, or that it is 
not less useful than our own ; therefore thirty w T orlds 
at least may float around each sun." 

You may count, by the aid of the telescope, about 



244 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

eighty millions of suns. Suppose we knew all the 
facts connected with these eighty millions of suns. 
Or suppose a volume for each of the thirty worlds 
connected with each sun, it would make a work hav- 
ing thirty times eighty millions of volumes ; but this 
could not begin to describe creation. Astronomers 
tell us that if we could look over all the systems that 
exist, and then should all the stars and all the suns 
we can now look at be struck into annihilation, we 
could not miss them ; we could not miss eighty mill- 
ions of suns, any more than we could miss the re- 
moval of one green leaf, when from the mountain 
top we look over the verdure of a waving and endless 
forest. 

Man never believes an endless number of volumes 
filled with innumerable absurdities, after the truth 
has been made plain before him, except in matters of 
religion. Man does not swallow falsehood with uni- 
form avidity, except to get clear of the Bible or its 
purest precepts. 

" Men love darkness rather than light." Love 
for darkness and disrelish for light is depravity. 

If man is naturally unlovely, he has fallen ; for 
he did not come impure from the hands of his Cre- 
ator. 

Impurity cannot enter heaven without alteration. 

Postscript. Some in every age who had cast 
away the book of God, and who were walking, with 
their backs turned on ceaseless felicity, after Satan, 
have been known to turn, and to prize unending joy, 
and to inquire after regeneration. 

We do not know but that some reader, after other 



CURE OF INFIDELITY. 245 

investigation, may make the most important of all 
inquiries, such as, 

What is conversion ? 

"What is a change of heart ? 

How is any one to become a Christian ? 

What is it to become a child of (rod ? 

How is any one to obtain the pardon of all his 
sins ? 

What is coming to God ? 

How are we to obtain the new birth ? 
• Reader, the new birth, change of heart, conver- 
sion, regeneration, etc., all mean the same thing. 
They are all different expressions for the same trans- 
actions. This action or event we wish to place before 
you in few words, as soon as we ask you to observe a 
few prefatory truths. 

Truth 1. It would not do for you, as an innocent 
man, to die for one condemned by our human law; 
for in taking out of life a just man, and leaving a 
bad man in it, the community is injured ; but when 
Christ died for those heaven's law had condemned, he 
laid down his life and took it up again. 

Truth 2. If Christ suffered for others, but did not 
suffer as much in the garden and on the cross as they 
deserve to suffer in hell, still, a full equivalent was 
offered in this sacrifice, because of the dignity of the 
individual who was bleeding. 

Truth 3. If the Judge is willing to take the Cal- 
vary death, as a satisfaction for the divine law, in 
place of your death, you may very well be willing. 

How to get religion. This conversion, designated 
by the expression, change of heart, new birth, and so 



246 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

many different names, is to "be obtained by asking for 
it. This is strange. Many will not believe it, the 
terms are so mild. "We refer the reader to the Bible 
for confirmation of this statement. We will endeavor 
to explain asking' — should it need explanation — as 
soon as the reader has looked at the Saviour's invi- 
tations in the blessed book. By searching there you 
will find that the Saviour is calling, " Come unto 
me," etc. He is declaring that applicants he will 
not " cast out." " Whosoever will, let him take," 
etc. " Ask, and ye shall receive," etc. 

Explanation. It does seem very strange, indeed, 
to speak of explaining what it is to ask for any thing. 
It is never necessary except in matters of true relig- 
ion. It is true there, that men lean towards mis- 
take, every step. Ministers talk of freely offered 
salvation, of God's willingness to receive penitents, 
etc., while their unconverted hearers misunderstand 
every word. The unconverted think, perhaps, that 
the change of heart is something exceedingly strange, 
which they are to wait for. Perhaps others fancy 
that they are to see light, or hear a voice, as Saul 
did ; or they interpret every word concerning peni- 
tence, submission, forsaking the world, going to Grod, 
receiving pardon, etc., as having some strange meta- 
physical meaning. Others think that they must be 
distressed in mind so intensely, and suffer so ex- 
tremely as to move the Lord's compassion ; or they 
wait for this anguish, thinking that none apply prop- 
erly but those in great mental agony. 

Such kinds of mistakes, delusions, and erro- 
neous interpretations, are so common and so uni- 



CURE OF INFIDELITY. 247 

versal, that it is necessary to explain the plainest 
things. 

Asking God. 1. The time. It seems that he urges 
us speedily, for he always says now. This word noiv, 
"being the only one used in reference to time, w r e infer 
that expedition is meant. 

2. The place. That we may choose ourselves, for 
he is everywhere. He is always near to us, and can 
hear us whatever we say, so that place cannot be ma- 
terial. Some, when they go to ask for pardon and 
heaven, choose to he in secret and alone. Others do 
not wait for this. 

3. The manner. The only way to ask acceptably 
with Grod, is to wish what you ask for. He does not 
love hypocrisy ; and if any should tell him that they 
wish to be saved, and wish to be Christians, when 
they do not, they cannot deceive him, for he sees 
the heart. 

Questions asked and answered. Question 1. 
How am I to know he will pardon, if I ask ? 

Answer. G-o and read of him in the New Testa- 
ment. After observing his kindness, and patience, 
and meekness, and compassion, and readiness to hear 
requests, you will begin to suppose that had you been 
there, offering a reasonable request, he would not 
have turned away from you ; but if it had been a 
petition which he had told you to make, you would 
confidently expect his compliance. Now you have to 
recollect that he is unchangeable ; he is as kind now 
as he then was ; he is as ready to hear as he was ; 
he has told you to ask for pardon, and He will not 
refuse you. 



248 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

Question 2. How am I to know if I am sincere, 
if I ask in a proper manner ? 

Answer. You are sincere if you wish to quit sin. 
Those who wish to quit sin, try ; those who wish to 
do right, to overcome sin, etc., ask God to help them 
to leave it. They are sorry when they fail, and try 
again ; and when they fall into sin again, they are 
concerned the more, and make a stronger effort. In 
short, they wish to do every thing they find required 
in the Bible ; and heing sorry for every failure, they 
keep up a struggle and a warfare against sin. 

Question 3. If I ask for the pardon of all my 
sins, and to be taken into the number of the children 
of God, and to have my name with the ransomed, 
how am I to know when it is done ? 

Answer. He has had it written down for your 
encouragement, that, if you ask, you shall not be 
refused. He had it written because he does not ap- 
pear to sinners, and they will not hear his lips pro- 
nounce words on this subject. "When you ask, want- 
ing pardon, you have reason to believe that he does 
not refuse, because he says he will not. 

Question 4. Am I to hear no whisper, or to have 
no strong indication, hear no voice, or have no singu- 
lar impulse to let me know that my sins are blotted 
out? 

Answer. No ; Christ has made you no such 
promise. You will not see the angel that blots out 
your sins ; you will not see the Saviour to inform 
you that it is done : " Blessed are they that have not 
seen, and yet have believed." Blessed are those who 
believe the Saviour's word as it stands on the page of 



CURE OF INFIDELITY. 249 

his book, as promptly as they would believe his word, 
if they had with him a personal interview. 

Question 5. If I were to ask for the remission of 
all my sins, and were to believe that my words were 
regarded, and my transgressions blotted out, I should 
surely rejoice : might I thus take comfort ? 

Answer. If you ever believe Christ's real state- 
ment as it stands in the Bible, it will be faith, and 
joy is one concomitant of faith. There was one who 
once declared, that under a hope of recently pardoned 
sin, his predominant feeling was a desire never to 
offend God again. Such a wish is connected with 
repentance. It is often the strongest feeling observ- 
able at the time. Often, the sinner does never no- 
tice the goodness of God ; and never has his attention 
turned towards that affecting kindness of the Saviour, 
until his own case brings it before him, and until a 
hope of pardon arouses his observation. 

Farewell. Reader, if you believe that you never 
sinned, we bid you farewell in despair ; for sin has 
benumbed your soul into a stupidity which is hope- 
less. If you know you are a sinner, seek pardon 
forthwith, for this is the only wise course. If you 
wish pardon, our farewell advice, as to the manner 
of seeking it, is to act just as you would do if you 
saw the Redeemer. 

Without seeing the Saviour, ask as you would if 
you did see hirn ; without hearing him speak, attend 
to his written words just as you would do if you 
heard him speak them. " Blessed are they that have 
not seen, and yet have believed." Without seeing 
the white throne, before which we must certainly 
l'i* 



2-50 CAUSE AXD CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

stand in judgment, act as you will wish you had 

when you do see it : without seeing the bright glory 
of the peaceful abode, and the joyous features of the 
white-robed society, act as vigorously as the worth 
of such a residence should prompt : without looking 
down into the red atmosphere, where are thrown to- 
gether "the fearful, and the unbelieving, and abom- 
inable, and murderers, and dogs, and sorcerers, and 
whoremongers, and all liars," act so as to avoid their 
company and their eternity. Farewell. 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 251 



CHAPTER XLVI. 

THE AUTHOR'S UNBELIEF-MEANS OF RESCUE. 

One way to make plain the cure of infidelity, is 
to give examples of deliverance. Facts are not read 
with less interest from being presented as the lever 
by which other minds have been moved ; and as the 
particulars of our own history can be given with more 
accuracy than others, the following may not be out 
of place. 

Before entering upon the means of escape from 
unbelief, it is necessary to notice the mode of descend- 
ing into that abyss. 

My parents were professors of religion, with a 
plain education, but well informed in holy things. 
Firm, ardent, and unassuming, infidelity came not 
before their thoughts. It seemed to be their impres- 
sion that entire unbelief very rarely existed, and that 
where it was avowed it could scarcely be sincere. I 
never remember to have heard the truth of inspira- 
tion questioned by mortal lips until the age of six- 
teen ; when, having passed through the usual college 
course too hastily, I went to read medicine in Dan- 
ville, Kentucky. As soon as I mixed with society, I 
of course entered the company of some who were 
admirers of the French philosophy. I was not as 
much with the world as others, but I heard them 



252 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

speak occasionally. When talking of religion their 
feelings were always awake. They seemed to be- 
lieve that in disregarding inspiration there was some- 
thing peculiarly original and lofty. The sparkle of 
the eye, the curl of the lip, and the tone of voice, if 
interpreted, seemed to say that the rest of mankind 
were contemptible fools, but "we are not." Their 
remarks impressed me, but not deeply. That their 
sarcasms and jeers influenced me towards infidelity, 
was because men love darkness more than light ; for 
their arguments were so destitute of fact for foun- 
dation, that ignorant as I was, I could sometimes see 
that they in reality favored the other side. 

I had some longing after the character of singu- 
lar intellectual independence, and some leaning tow- 
ards the dignified mien ; but I did not assume either 
as yet, for my habits of morality remained, and my 
reverence for superior age and deeper research. It 
was necessary that I should receive praise from some 
source, before all diffidence or modesty should be 
swallowed up in self-esteem. And this intoxicating 
poison was not wanting. After the expiration of 
three years, I became surgeon's mate, or second phy- 
sician, to a regiment of Kentucky militia which win- 
tered near the northern lakes. The approbation of 
many around me there, led me to feel as though I was 
one of the actors on life's wide stage. After this, as 
I frequented the wine- club or the card-party, rev- 
erence for the Bible diminished ; and as my respect 
for holy precepts diminished, my sinful habits in- 
creased. Infidelity inclines us towards pride, festiv- 
ity, and dissipation, while these engender infidelity. 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 253 

Like two ponderous metallic globes hung together on 
the side of a declivity, they mutually assist each 
other down the steep, and the further they proceed, 
the greater is their momentum. After this I became 
first surgeon to a regiment of Tennessee troops which 
served at Mobile. There I became acquainted with 
many officers of the regular army, whose intimacy 
was not calculated to lead me towards God or heaven. 
During this time, and after this, all worldly success 
only injured me. It increased my haughtiness, or 
added to my means of profuse pecuniary expenditure. 
Revelry darkened the cloud that enveloped my soul, 
and of course I advanced rapidly in unbelief. In my 
race of infidelity I never reached entire atheism. I 
was what was called a deist. After a time I began 
to have moments of doubt whether or not Grod ex- 
isted ; and moving still onward, it was not long before 
those short seasons of atheism began to lengthen and 
to blacken — when I was mercifully arrested. The 
means of my escape employ our next attention. 



254 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

CHAPTER XLVII. 

MEANS OF RESCUE— FALSE STATEMENTS. 

I had not been brought to embrace infidelity by 
perusing the writings of unbelievers. I had never 
read a volume of their productions. I knew that 
some of these authors were renowned for their liter- 
ature, and distinguished for their talents. I felt 
strengthened in my creed by the recollection that 
many of the great and intellectual believed as I did. 
I might have asked myself the question. If I am an 
infidel without assistance, what shall I be when aided 
by the arguments of all those books? I was led, 
casually, to read a book whose author I knew stood at 
the head of the infidel army. The man with whom 
I boarded bought at auction Voltaire's Philosophical 
Dictionary, and cast it into his library. I read it, 
and some months after, not knowing but I might have 
been mistaken in my first impression, I read the work 
again. "When I state different impressions made on 
me by this and other productions, in different months 
and years, I cannot be accurate as to date or order. 
I cannot vouch for time or priority, only that such 
and such influences were made on my mind by such 
and such arguments. I did not renounce infidelity 
at once. The struggle occupied many months. 

I opened the volume already named, and read the 
remarks of the author on a verse where he quotes 
Solomon as speaking of wine sparkling in the glass. 
This he avowed could not have been written by Sol- 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 255 

omon, for there was no glass, he said, in Solomon's 
day. My blood ran somewhat cold on reading this ; 
but I had then read some history. I knew that 
Archimedes was said to burn the Roman fleet with 
burning-glasses, which no one thinks of disputing ; 
and we have no more account of glass in the days of 
Archimedes, than we have in the days of Solomon. 
I knew that Voltaire knew this, and it was not 
through ignorance that he penned his assertions. I 
knew that the author knew that ten thousands of 
boys and ploughmen would read who would know 
nothing of the facts, and of course the statement of 
the Dictionary would appear to them plain and con- 
clusive. I was aware that if I had known nothing of 
ancient history, this false position would have appeared 
to me an incontrovertible argument. How strikingly 
were my impressions of the unfairness of this author 
afterwards confirmed, by finding that the words quoted 
by him, "sa couleur brille dans le verre" — "it giv- 
eth its color in the cup," Proverbs 23 : 31 — stand in 
the common French Bible, "sa couleur dans la coupe;" 
and that the word which he will have to be glass, is 
in the original Hebrew d 1 " 1 ?, kis, "a common cup, 
such as is used for drinking out of at meals," with- 
out the slightest implication that it was glass. 

But I was compelled to feel, when standing in the 
infidel ranks, "We should not blind the uninformed. 
We surely should support our side by sound fact, and 
not by half-way lies. But this, perhaps, is merely 
a weak page of the author ; I will read on and 
notice his masterly positions, and his unanswerable 
objections against the Bible." 



256 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 



CHAPTER XLYIII. 

THE SUBJECT CONTINUED. 

I at once opened the Philosophical Dictionary 
again, and my eye rested on an article concerning 
Potiphar, the captain of Pharaoh's guard, to whom 
Joseph was sold in Egypt. The author informed the 
reader that this captain was called a eunuch. He 
then added his witticisms concerning eunuchs, and the 
wife of this man whom he called such. This was the 
amount of his assault. As I closed the book, my feel- 
ings were not easily described. I knew that eunuchs 
were employed in king's palaces for so many centu- 
ries, as managers, directors, superintendents, etc., 
that it would be strange if the two words eunuch and 
officer, had not become in those days synonymous, so 
as to mean nearly the same thing, or so, at least, as to 
be used interchangeably. I knew that Hebrew schol- 
ars agreed among themselves in calling the words 
alike so far, that they were in ancient days used indis- 
criminately. The author of the Dictionary did not 
inform the reader of this, although his information 
extended to all such things. To the minds of the ten 
thousand times ten thousand untaught readers, I knew 
that the language of the learned author would appear 
to hold up the page of Moses to deserved ridicule ; 
but I had reason to exclaim, " Our leaders should use 
fair argument, founded on truth and not quibble, and 
that quibble on falsehood. Surely we have actual 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 257 

objections to offer against the Bible ; why should we 
use lies, or trust in them? But surely these two 
articles were written at an unguarded hour, or at 
some unthinking moment of levity. It cannot be 
that the grey-headed philosopher made use of wilful 
perversion, or false painting continually. If he did, I 
am in bad company. I must see further into this 
matter. I must read again. 

I read again, and what was my surprise to find 
every article of this description ! I read on and on, 
and there was a seeming objection to the Scriptures, 
but to the unlearned only. That which was painful 
was, that these objections were mostly built upon a 
statement really false ; and if a half-read youth could 
see its fallacy, then the learned writer could of course. 
He must have known its falsity at the time of writ- 
ing. I then continued to read on until I passed 
through the book ; and, in the entire volume, there 
was not a solitary article which was not a kind of 
ridicule, which proved nothing for our side ; or a lit- 
tle castle erected on historic falsehoods, but of such 
a shape, that those who had never read a tolerable 
course of history, could not tell but they were truths. 
I knew^that those who had made no more than one 
year's close perusal of ancient history, could detect 
these lies of my champion, the leader of the army of 
sceptics, as easily as a skilful judge of money can 
tell a counterfeit dollar from one that is genuine ; yea, 
as readily as the naturalist can tell a goat from a 
sheep. The thought passed through my mind, that a 
good cause never did need a stream of falsehood to 
sustain it. I must ask myself, why resort to lies as 



258 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

weapons, if ours is the right side in this controversy ? 
It seemed strange, that in the Philosophical Diction- 
ary, a book written by one so able and so famous, 
there should not be one fair argument, one truth un- 
mixed with a lie. I could have felt more like retain- 
ing my infidelity, if there had been only a few posi- 
tions based on historic fact, a few fair, truthful objec- 
tions to the Bible amid the chapters of misrepresen- 
tation ; but I could not find one. I looked over it 
again, and I could not find one. I knew that a mask 
might be so painted, that a child of one year old 
might take it for a human visage, but one more grown 
could not be thus deluded; and the maker of the 
mask, especially, would know that it was not a hu- 
man face. Thus I was forced to remember, that the 
paintings of the great Voltaire would seem reality to 
the infants in history, while those more advanced 
could not be so deceived. But the most painful of 
all to the heart of the deist is, that the philosopher 
himself was not deceived, but knew his productions 
would blind the ignorant alone. I found that I must 
read on. "Was it so in other authors, or in other 
writings of the same author ? I continued to read, 
and I must give the reader other examples of what I 
found, that it may not appear either prejudice, exag- 
geration, or passion, when I state again, that I could 
find no seeming argument in any book advocating my 
system of unbelief, which any boy who had made a 
moderate research in history, could not see was a 
mixture of hatred and untruth. 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 259 



CHAPTER XLIX. 

SEEMING TRUTH, BUT ACTUAL FALSEHOOD. 

After reading the Philosophical Dictionary, the 
inquiry presented itself, " May not something more 
able be found in other productions of this author, 
whose fame has reached around the earth ? May he 
not have reserved his strongest weapons for other vol- 
umes and other times ?" I opened another book and 
read. "What was my surprise to find there the same 
spirit, the same manner, and the same texture of 
plausible falsehood and expert ridicule. I might pre- 
sent the reader with volumes of instances, but it is 
not expedient here. It is, however, necessary that a 
proper number of fair examples should be presented, 
to show what is meant by a mixture of untruth and 
irony. It is a matter of perfect indifference from 
what page these examples are taken, or from what 
author. I shall continue for a time to notice items 
from the author already before us ; and I shall take 
such articles as come first to my recollection. 

I read from the pen of this prince of philosophers, 
the following declaration : " Men saw Isaiah walking 
stark naked, in Jerusalem, in order to show that the 
king of Assyria would bring a crowd of captives out 
of Egypt and Ethiopia, who would not have any 
thing to cover their nakedness. Is it possible that a 
man could walk stark naked through Jerusalem with- 
out being punished by the civil power ?" 



260 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

What impression must this make on one who had 
opened the book in search of support in his system of 
infidelity ? I had read the Bible and heard it read 
often, through necessity, when I was young. I knew 
that many who read this would think it true, and 
make their inferences without further examination ; 
but I knew it false, and I knew that the author must 
have known its untruth. He knew that the man with- 
out arms was and is called naked, in a military sense. 
Armed troops, and naked troops, are terms in common 
use. Those who are not only despoiled of arms, but 
destitute of robes and upper garments, as slaves com- 
monly are, were called naked. No one means by this, 
stark nakedness, except those who choose so to un- 
derstand ; and those who thus choose, have something 
in their hearts which so actuates them. I began to 
feel as though I was not to look for much support from 
those who had received Europe's applause. I did 
think it strange, that men of so great talent could 
not offer some argument of weight in their cause, 
and having truth for its basis. 

I read again, in another place, " How could Grod 
promise them that immense tract of land, the coun- 
try between the Euphrates and the river of Egypt, 
which the Jews never possessed ?" 

I was under the necessity of making the follow- 
ing remarks : " All that prevents this being argument 
is, that the Jews did possess it. Joshua did not con- 
quer it, but David did. If others should choose to 
swallow lies without investigation, and build their 
whole creed upon them, it cannot make the same 
course safe for me. The objections of the greatest 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 261 

man on earth must have a portion, at least, of truth 
in their composition, or I cannot receive them." 

I read again, "How could God give them that 
little spot of Palestine for ever and ever, from which 
they have been driven so long a time since ?" 

I knew that the author of this question must have 
known that (rod had told the Israelites over and again, 
that if they disobeyed him, they should be driven 
away and scattered over all the earth. I knew that 
all who had read the Bible, had seen these promises 
were made conditionally ; and I thought that my 
companions in unbelief ought to have honesty enough 
to confess that which they knew, even if it did favor 
the Bible. 

I read again, "Among the Jews, a man might 
marry his sister." All I could say to this was, 
" Among the Jews, a man was forbidden to marry his 
sister." All the reason why my unbelief was not 
strengthened by this assertion was, that I felt there 
was some difference between a falsehood and the 
truth. I knew that if an instance could be produced 
where a Jew, contrary to their law, had married his 
sister, it would prove that this marriage was allowed 
among them, in the same way that a case of murder 
in America proves that murder is allowed with us. 
I began to feel startled for my creed and for my relig- 
ious views, but I did not yet renounce them. I was 
an infidel still. The heart of man in these cases 
receives error readily, and relinquishes it slowly and 
reluctantly. 

I continued to read, "It is said in the book of 
Joshua, that the Jews were circumcised in the wil- 



262 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

derness." All the difference between this and fact 
is, that it is said in the book of Joshua, that the Jews 
were not circumcised in the wilderness. It is true, 
that upon this false assertion and others like it, a 
very ingenious infidel argument is "based ; but what 
influence was that to have upon one who had read ? 
I read over the foundation to that very plausible in- 
ference once more. " It is said in the book of Joshua, 
that the Jews were circumcised in the wilderness." 
The following was the language of my feelings: 
" This would support the argument attempted against 
the Old Testament, only the opposite is asserted in 
the book of Joshua. Are these the kind of assertions 
which so many ten thousands are believing implicitly 
and repeating triumphantly, and upon which they 
build their entire belief? Out of the millions who 
applaud, and who cast away the Bible, do none of 
them pause and investigate ?'? 

I began to see that things said against that book 
were certainly popular. I began to have some little 
discovery of the fact that able arguments in favor of 
inspiration were not read, or if read, not noticed or 
remembered, while such things as I have quoted were 
loved and applauded at once. I did not, however, 
know the reason of this : I saw something of the fact, 
but did not at that time suspect man's fallen nature 
of giving him more love for darkness than for light. 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 263 



CHAPTER L. 

SEEMING- TRUTH, BUT ACTUAL FALSEHOOD. 

I would not continue to place before the reader 
the cases of falsehood after falsehood, and perversion 
after perversion, were it not that it is scarcely credi- 
ble to those who have never examined, that nations 
should have been turned away from Christianity by 
volumes of unmingled untruth. In order to make 
the impression of this fact as perfect as the naked 
truth deserves — the fact, that there is no one truthful 
statement from which an important argument is 
drawn, in any volume of Yoltaire I have ever read, 
but every article is either partly or totally made up 
of falsehood — I must continue the presentation of 
instances longer, and until there is danger of these 
items becoming wearisome ; then I shall turn to other 
authors of the same belief. 

I read a page where the learned author concluded 
that the Jews were anthropophagi, cannibals, eaters 
of human flesh. The first argument which seemed 
to be presented in favor of this opinion was, that 
there had been cannibals in other parts of the world. 
This did not seem to me altogether conclusive. I 
read on until I came to the most commanding proof 
given by the philosopher, that the Jews did indeed 
eat human flesh. This he gave by telling us that 
Ezekiel promised them the flesh of horses, and of 
captains, and of mighty men ; and if they were prom- 



264 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

ised the flesh, no douht it was that they might eat 
it, etc. I knew that this might be read and be- 
lieved by myriads who never would take the trouble 
to read the prophet referred to — by thousands w T ho 
would rejoice in it without consulting the Bible ; but 
as for myself, I had read it when a boy. I knew that 
the call and the invitation by the mouth of Ezekiel, 
was to the birds of the air and carnivorous animals 
of the forest. They were told that they might eat 
the flesh of horses, and the flesh of their riders ! I 
felt that if the prophet were ordered to declare the 
approach of a bloody battle, and in order to impress 
all hearers with the amount of the threatened devas- 
tation, w T as directed to call upon ravenous beasts and 
birds to come and fill themselves, it was a low kind 
of lying to tell those who never read, that the call 
was to men to come and fill themselves. I did not 
think it any more excusable because there were mill- 
ions who were reading and joyfully adopting all such 
statements, without ever reading the prophets, or a 
sentence penned by any one in their favor. Still, this 
was the kind, and the only kind of reasoning written 
by any one, as far as I could discover, who had 
received admiration and applause beyond measure. 
I thought that if I could find nothing stronger among 
reputed giants, I should be under the necessity of 
reviewing my system, and noticing once more the 
objections which I myself had fabricated against 
holy writ, lest they should resemble in some respects 
those which I was reading in the works of my infidel 
brethren. 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 265 



CHAPTER LI. 

SEEMING TRUTH, BUT ACTUAL FALSEHOOD. 

About this time, when passing from place to 
place, it was no uncommon night's occurrence to meet 
a circle around the tavern fire, and before the evening 
passed to hear remarks on Christianity. 

I listened, and the objections were all of the same 
class of those I had been reading, or weaker. It is 
strange that I should have remained an unbeliever ; 
but as yet, I was only sufficiently shaken to cause 
me to read, inquire, and listen. T observed that those 
who hissed at the Bible were very impatient, if any 
one on the opposite side crossed them in argument. 
Even when talking with each other, their eyes 
flashed, and the countenance assumed an expression 
singularly vindictive. Others, again, chose irony for 
their weapon, and laughed aloud where others were 
not always able to discover any thing indubitably 
jocular. But that which gave me most pain, was 
that which I met so frequently, and which occurred 
almost hourly, from day to day. I saw those who 
assumed the lordly look, as soon as the subject was 
mentioned. They put on the consequential air of 
high authority, and with the tone of emphatic decision 
they pronounced others more than idiots, while at 
the time it was evident that they did not know Alex- 
ander the Great from Alexander the coppersmith. 
It was true of the most positive and the most over- 

Cause and Cure. 1 2 



266 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

bearing in this controversy, that they were unac- 
quainted with all ancient history, and would not 
know Peter the apostle from Peter the hermit, had 
you seriously tested the matter by particular exam- 
ination. I was not surprised that men should be un- 
informed. That this was so with most of our race 
was no new discovery. Being ignorant myself to my 
own consciousness, I was not disposed to judge harshly 
of a man merely because he did not possess know- 
ledge. I must have included myself in the same 
condemnation, had I spoken severely of the unin- 
formed ; but that those who had never read a hun- 
dred volumes of any thing, should so confidently and 
so repeatedly sneer at the learned, and the grey- 
headed, and the meek, who had been toiling in a 
fifty years' research, began to make me suspect that 
men hated Christianity with a spontaneous and a 
special dislike. I did not hear the ploughman decid- 
ing, with oaths, sarcasm, and vehemence, in matters 
of navigation, wherein he was totally ignorant. I 
did not hear the apprentice-boy pronouncing all who 
did not hold his theory of astronomy deluded or hyp- 
ocritical. 

I doubted whether in any thing, religion excepted, 
men would so generally decide so quickly and so 
haughtily, while they were uninformed. 

After the most common order of objections against 
the Bible began to grow somewhat old and worn, a 
new class of jeers came into much-admired fashion. 
I will give an example from the multitude. 

In different parts of the world where fuel is scarce, 
there have been those of the poorest class who were 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 267 

in the habit of making a fire from dried manure and 
trash. This sun-dried manure did not only make a 
fire, but by such a fire their bread was often baked. 

In order to apprize the Israelites of the poverty 
and wretchedness to which they were certainly to be 
reduced, Ezekiel was ordered to bake his bread with 
such fuel and eat it in their sight. This was perhaps 
all in vision, but this does not matter, nor alter the 
case, nor change the point we have in view. The 
learned of France and of America pretended to un- 
derstand it, that the prophet was told to spread fresh 
manure on his bread and eat it. They wrote and so 
asserted it, again and again, for the perusal and the 
exultation of those who never would read the page 
of prophecy. They multiplied their joyous jests and 
their untiring witticisms on this favorite point, talk- 
ing of the prophet's breakfast, of his sweetmeats, etc. 

How much this pleasing and refined irony would 
have influenced me as I read it, I am unable to say ; 
but unfortunately for my coadjutors, being the son of 
an old, praying man, who had compelled me to hear 
the book he loved read twice every day, I knew that 
all the merriment and all the jeering was founded on 
a lie, and I do not remember that I ever laughed in 
the midst of our hilarity. I had built what seemed 
to me walls between me and Christianity. I had my 
strong objections, as I thought them, such as will be 
mentioned after a time ; but those arguments which 
would have been powerful, only that they started in 
lies naked to all who<had read the Bible thrice with 
attention, gave me more pain than pleasure. 

But this example of a fondness for filthy jesting 



268 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

is not the whole truth. It does not reach the summit 
of entire fact. A kind of indecent jesting, still more 
indelicate, became much practised and more loved. 

They would take some case of crime recorded in 
the Bible, some case of adultery or of fornication, 
and name it and repeat it, and place it in different 
attitudes with unusual, delight. This was one more 
kind of warfare which did not fix my principles of 
infidelity. It rather rendered me more uneasy if I 
saw it settle the creed of others, for I knew well 
enough that the Bible nowhere enjoined adultery, 
praised incest, or recommended fornication. I remem- 
bered, that if the book had given us the history of 
faultless men, we should have pronounced it lies, 
because the volume says there are none such, and 
because it would have contradicted our observation 
of the human race. I also recollected, that if the 
history of individuals is given to us, we should prefer 
that the truth, and the whole truth, should be hon- 
estly narrated, rather than faults concealed and vir- 
tues extolled. 

"When I heard my companions of the hotel circle 
seize upon some case of unchastity, recorded to the dis- 
grace of a patriarch perhaps, and besmear it all over 
with the pollutions of a filthy imagination, and love 
to dwell upon it, and speak as though this was what 
the writers wished to teach or what the Scriptures 
recommended, I could not but see that there was an 
unfairness there, which proved that the alleged filthi- 
ness existed in the heart of the jester, and not on the 
page of scripture history. Indeed, sometimes when 
I witnessed the self-esteem of my brethren in infi- 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 269 

delity, their dictatorial puffing, united with ignorance 
visible to the unlearned, I could not help making 
secret and severe remarks upon them, for it was my 
day of haughty wickedness. I have said to myself 
in language yet more ungentle, that of which the 
following is the import : " Self-admiring worm, an 
expert man could frame in half an hour a more in- 
genious lie against any narrative that ever was writ- 
ten, than any which you are capable of repeating 
after the last one you heard talk." 

Strange to tell, these discoveries, these facts, and 
even these feelings, had no further influence upon me 
than to strengthen my resolve to read further, and 
examine my old doubts with more accuracy. 



270 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

CHAPTER LII. 

MEANS OF RESCUE— YOLNETS RUINS. 

After I had gone through all the writings of the 
renowned Voltaire, I could not find one argument or 
position which was unmixed truth. Since then I 
have seen letters of certain Jews to Voltaire. I 
could not discover in them any evidence of a solitary 
misrepresentation. This proves to me that those 
who feel right do not wilfully, and of course do not 
often mistake. These Israelites, in writing to this 
great man, tell him that he took his thoughts from 
Bolingbroke, Morgan, Tindal, etc., who in their turn 
had copied them from others. It really did seem to 
me as though it was not on account of their weight 
or superior excellence, that we need suspect any one 
of originality who copies them. My disappointment 
was great, and my astonishment indescribable, to find 
writings which had revolutionized provinces or per- 
haps nations in their religious creed, destitute of truth 
and full of falsehood. Pure, lovely truth, art thou 
discarded? Is falsehood, black, ungainly falsehood, 
loved in place of truth ? Only in matters of relig- 
ion. The carnal mind loves darkness there, but in 
other things men prefer light. 

I resolved to read the works of others of the re- 
nowned and of the talented ; for perhaps it was in 
these books that I might find united in one lovely 
circle, strength, mildness, truth, candor, and philan- 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 271 

thropy. I took hold of Volney's Ruin of Empires, 
most commonly and familiarly called Volney's Ruins. 
I had heard this work extolled long and loud, and I 
read it attentively. The style was excellent and the 
manner captivating ; hut that which was more pleas- 
ing still, was this — the profusion of bitter misstate- 
ment, that constant stream of malignant untruth in 
which I had heen wading, was wanting here. The 
most of his text was truth, real truth. The impres- 
sion made on my mind by this volume, I shall not be 
able to make the reader fairly comprehend without 
his passing through some previous course of expla- 
nation. 

I think this can be made plain by relating the 
substance of an interview which took place between 
a minister of the gospel and an infidel. They held 
a long conversation on a point which cannot be over- 
looked or misunderstood, if one would understand 
Volney or his doctrines. This dialogue between the 
deist and the preacher cannot be given verbally, but 
only substantially. I can give very correctly the 
sentiment expressed on that occasion, but accuracy 
of words I cannot attempt, nor is it necessary. The 
substance of their conversation was as follows : 

Deist. Another, and the strongest reason why I 
can never receive the religion you profess is, that it 
speaks of visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the 
children unto the third and fourth generation. I 
have too much respect for my Creator to believe he 
will ever do this in any case. 

Preacher. Perhaps you did not notice that the 
verse does not speak of visiting the punishment due 



272 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

to the father upon the children. It is the iniquity 
of the fathers which G od speaks of visiting upon the 
children unto the third and fourth generation. 

Deist. I do not believe that he would visit any- 
thing of the father's upon the child, in any way or in 
any shape. I have a higher esteem for my Maker 
than this would amount to. I do not believe it, and 
I will not believe it. 

Preacher. You do believe it, for you see it all 
around you every day and every hour, and you con- 
sent to it, and you approve of it. 

Deist. I do not understand you. sir. 

Preacher. You may understand if you will, for 
nothing is plainer in matter of fact. I knew a man, 

Mr. S , who had one son, his only child. This 

man would not work. He would not humble him- 
self to honest labor. He seemed to have an invinci- 
ble aversion to bodily toil. Here his iniquity began, 
for the (rod of the Bible had ordered him to work. 
He must have food and raiment, and he frequented 
horseraces, and frequently made a considerable sum 
by betting. He would attend card-parties, and fre- 
quently filled his pockets from the losses of those less 
skilful than himself. In this way I knew him to spend 
nearly twenty years. His little son was very lively 
and healthful, and promisingly intellectual. As this 
active little boy grew up, he did not work any more 
than his father did, and no one expected he would. 
He loved best to go with his father from place to place, 
and from village to village. He mingled in different 
kinds of company, saw new faces continually, and 
all childish embarrassments wore away. He be- 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 273 

came skilful in riding fleet horses and in different 
games. His father's character became his. No one 
expected it to be otherwise. It was easier to teach 
him a love for loose amusements than for toil. The 
tavern-house revel was more attractive for the youth 
of sixteen, than was the corn-field employment. But 
mark you, the father was not happy. Indolence opens 
the door to other vices. He lost the respect of his 
fellow-citizens. He loved intoxicating drinks ; he 
became otherwise abandoned, and was miserable. 
His iniquity was punished much here in this life. 
But his son was unhappy too. His father's charac- 
ter descended to him. God has declared in the hear- 
ing of all parents, that it is not his plan to prevent it. 
He became a practiser of the same sins which his 
father had loved. He became unhappy in proportion 
to his guilt. The iniquity of the father descended to 
the son. He followed the same course of idleness and 
profligacy as closely as his features followed those of 
his father in expression. If this, sir, had been the 
only case where the character and the iniquity of the 
father had become the son's over again, it would over- 
turn your attempt to be wiser or more amiable than 
Omnipotence. But you know of cases all around 
you, and they are all over the earth, where children 
take after their fathers in their vices, and of course 
suffer as their fathers suffered, in proportion to their 
guilt. 

We will consider this case, when I have placed 

before you one of an opposite character. Mr. T , 

whom you knew, was not poor ; he possessed a valu- 
able tract of land, and did not refuse to plough it. 
12* 



274 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

He earned his bread from day to day, although the 
sweat dropped from his brow while obtaining it. He 
had no time to go to the horserace, for he would not 
neglect his harvest. You know how comfortable and 
quiet was all around him. He had the confidence of 
his relatives and friends. He seemed to be very hap- 
py. His sons all took after him. "When not in the 
school-house, he had them in the field. They now 
work as hard as he did, and begin to be as much re- 
spected. The father's character and his peace have 
descended to them. You know very well that the 
father could have taught them idleness as easily as 
he taught them industry, and God would not have 
prevented it. There are singular cases of exception 
to be seen in the process of every common plan, but 
they prove nothing. God has promised seed-time 
and harvest, and we have it. A few unseasonable 
weeks, or a failure of harvest, does not disprove the 
assertion that we have harvest. "Winter is a cold 
season, and a warm day in January does not disprove 
that truth. Summer is a warm season, and a cold 
day in June does not falsify the declaration. That 
father could have taught his sons habits of mirth and 
revelry, as easily as he taught them months of toil, 
and God would not have interfered. By refusing to 
interpose coercively, he visits the evils of the fathers 
upon their offspring. If that man who was punished 

at "W n Circuit court for stealing — his father was 

notoriously dishonest, and all his neighbors knew it — 
if that man had spoken as follows to the jury and to 
the judge, what would have been their reply? " Fel- 
low-citizens, I cannot see how I am to blame for 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 275 

stealing, for my father did so before me. I always 
loved it, and I always practised it. My father always 
preferred taking his neighbor's property to work, and 
I have only copied him. I cannot be to blame, for I 
was reared to dishonesty." 

You know that the judge would not tell the jury 
to acquit because he had shown his father to be also 
guilty, and to be the cause of his son's unloveliness. 

The murderer never is excused, even if his father 
practised it in his sight, so as to make him a mur- 
derer in heart from his earliest day. The iniquitous 
character of the father going down to the son and 
acting itself out there again, does not become more 
lovely because it was a garment worn before. Neither 
Grod nor man excuses it. God has warned parents in 
the hearing of heaven, earth, and hell, that this descent 
will take place, and the features of the soul be " vis- 
ited" as certainly as the features of the body. I knew 
the father who, in habits of filthy debauch, had ac- 
quired disease which descended to his children, and 
they were born with feeble, unsound frames, incapa- 
ble of meeting the hardships of life and suffering with 
every morning's sun. Why do you not pretend to 
have too high an opinion of your Creator to believe 
that diseases are " visited" to the third and fourth 
generation? (xo and tell physicians that you do not 
believe them, when they assert that many diseases 
are hereditary, because you have a more exalted view 
of your Maker than to suppose he would make things 
thus. Poor, innocent child, groaning there on ac- 
count of the father's licentious and detestable indul- 
gences. You might speak very pathetically and very 



276 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

zealously, and at last not be either as wise or as be- 
nevolent as the Creator, who has made things thus. 
But to go back again to moral disease, to that iniquity 
which does descend : when you know there are ten 
thousand cases all around you, where the son is more 
inclined to copy his father's vicious habits than to fol- 
low virtue ; when you know that all who fall into 
evil practices suffer for their character more or less ; 
and this visiting of the iniquity upon the children 
God has never altered since he said he would not ; 
why be trying to be wise, and to look lofty, and to 
disbelieve that which you have seen every day of 
your life when you mingled with society ? 

The deist confessed that he had known idle fa- 
thers rear idle children, and that men dislike them 
for their worthlessness. 

He confessed that he had known evil-tempered, 
jealous, or envious parents have families that felt as 
they did, and were considered unlovely and hateful, 
in proportion to the amount of malignity which they 
had copied of their parents. He confessed that it did 
not excuse the criminal in any court of justice on 
earth, to say that the murder, or the adultery, or 
whatever the crime might be, was copied of father or 
mother, who had acted it out before them. Finally, 
he confessed that if a father had succeeded in train- 
ing a son in vice and hateful crime, so that this black- 
ness of soul and monstrous deformity caused* the suf- 
fering of its possessor for fifty years in this life, and 
then brought him to perish on a gibbet, perhaps it 
might forbid his joy in the next existence. On the 
same principle that if I may not take many thousand 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 277 

pounds unfairly, I may not take a single penny; 
on this principle, if a certain amount of unloveliness 
acquired in a given way, may detract from the hap- 
piness, or cause the suffering of any one for half a 
century, it may do so much longer, for aught we 
know. 

Now, reader, in the next chapter we have a cer- 
tain application of this truth to make, which will 
prevent our misunderstanding each other when we 
look together on the ruins of empires. 



278 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 



CHAPTER LIII. 

THE SUBJECT CONTINUED. 

There was a man living on the shore of lake Erie 
who taught his children that adultery might offend 
God, but fornication was not amiss in any way. His 
was a false religion. His children believed it and 
suffered for it. His sons looked with entire indiffer- 
ence upon the ruin of their sisters. They would bar- 
gain for the prostitution of any female relative, if 
money were to be realized by it. All the family were 
brought down near the level of brutes by such false 
tenets, for other parts of their character soon corre- 
sponded, and they suffered from their father's teach- 
ing, and that greatly, whether we think it proper or 
not that they should have been left thus far under his 
influence. 

Reader, the Bible shows that you can teach your 
children a false religion, and succeed equally well in 
bringing them to adopt it, if you try. We know this 
is true from observation, because not one in the whole 
nation or tribe to which the man mentioned belonged, 
ever found any difficulty in training his family to the 
sin he practised. 

There was a man at the foot of an Asiatic moun- 
tain, who taught his children that God was some- 
times pleased with the sacrifice of a child, nay, that 
often nothing short of this would answer. In pro- 
cess of time his daughter had a little son, whom she 
loved, but she strangled him. The mother suffered, 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 279 

and the child suffered. The iniquity belonging to the 
false tenets of this false religion descended, and was 
felt to the third and fourth generation. The Bible 
says that we may teach our families tenets equally 
iniquitous, if we try. Observation teaches the same, 
because a hundred families living around this man 
taught as he did, and none failed to rear their chil- 
dren in their own likeness. The God of heaven says, 
reader, that if we teach our children thus, he will let 
it take its course ; and we believe he will, for he has 
in every nation since the world was made, visited the 
fathers' teaching in this way to distant generations. 

Application. On reading Volney's Ruins, I dis- 
covered two main pillars supporting the whole super- 
structure. 

1. The first great pillar which he shapes out is, 
that a man is born a Christian^ or he is born a Mo- 
hamedan, or he is born a Pagan. 

Now this is almost true : with some slight varia- 
tion it is what the Bible taught several thousand 
years before the author of Ruins of Empires was 
born. I knew while I was reading, that if a child 
was born of Mohamedan parents, and these parents 
trained the child in religion, it would be a sincere 
follower of that prophet. I knew that the same was 
true of Paganism. I knew that a child born of Chris- 
tian parents might be a sincere Christian, and was 
more ready to become such in proportion to his faith- 
ful training. But it is true that he is not as ready 
to become a sincere Christian as he is a sincere Pagan, 
or Mohamedan, because men prefer darkness to light; 
they have not that natural relish for Christianity 



280 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY.' 

which they have for false religions. Mr. Volney's 
plainest inference I did not see so clearly. The 
amount of his inference or deduction seemed to be, 
that if any number of parents, at any time or place, 
might teach their families any amount of false relig- 
ion^ therefore there was no true religion. A large 
portion of his page was true. It was urging the same 
doctrine which Moses said Jehovah spoke aloud to 
the people from the top of Sinai, long ago. A small 
part of his text only seemed false. Some declare that 
the most dangerous falsehoods on earth are those pre- 
sented in company with a large measure of truth. 
They say that poison by itself might be rejected, be- 
cause of its bitter taste ; but if presented in a large 
quantity of pleasant and healthful food, it may be 
taken. In this way a production having one part 
falsehood and nine parts truth, or correct principle, 
is very captivating. The truth quiets apprehension, 
and the lie is the salt to an appetite for darkness 
rather than light. Even where we do not love truth, 
we look around for a portion of it to keep the con- 
science calm. In short, I found the French philoso- 
pher urging protractedly that which I had read, or 
heard read from the Scriptures from infancy — like 
fathers, like children. I do not know what influence 
his work would have had on me if I had not from 
boyhood known this to be one of the Bible's principal 
doctrines, and one of God's prominent threatenings. 
I am inclined to believe, judging while observing 
others, that this book would have drawn me after its 
author with great attraction. As it was, it informed 
me of nothing new, and it gave me no prop for my 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 281 

infidelity. I knew that if Grod existed, he must do 
right ; that as sure as he existed he always had de- 
clined, or refused to interfere in any way, to prevent 
falsehood descending to the children of false teachers, 
and that this was what the Bible said he had de- 
clared he would do. I confessed to myself that I did 
not see any thing more strange in his saying he would 
do a thing, than in his actually doing it. I knew 
that, although sitting on a throne of omnipotence, he 
did not interpose, and he did permit the lies of the 
fathers to visit the children to the third and fourth 
generation, and there would have been no more harm 
in his saying that he would thus act, than in acting 
it. Having always been familiar with the fact that 
I could teach my child a false creed and an evil 
practice, if I chose, I was not so well prepared to 
adopt the rest as logical inference and fair deduction, 
that one creed was as true as another. 

I thought that if the Maker of the world had said 
in his denunciatory threatenings, u If you do set fire 
to your house and your granaries, in your wanton 
madness, it shall not end with yourself, for your chil- 
dren shall suffer the gnawings of hunger to as many 
generations as are under your roof," it would have 
been only saying that which is fact ; and I could not 
say that therefore one practice was as good as anoth- 
er, or that among all the different opinions concerning 
parental conduct, one was as correct as another. 

I thought that if the Creator had said, " If you 
do paint your soul black, the minds of your children 
as far down as your influence reaches, shall be stained 
with the same falsehood," it would only have been 



282 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

telling us what has been and still is; but I could not 
be certain that this proves that no one knows truth 
from falsehood, or correct principle from error. 

2. The following is the amount of the other great 
principle which supported his system, namely, that 
all religions, as well as Christianity, present their 
prophets, their sacred books, their martyrs, and their 
miracles; and who is to decide between their claims? 
or in other words, we are not expected to decide 
between various and plausible claims, zealously and 
tumultuously attested. Does (rod expect every one 
to be a critical judge? 

I thought there was something very forcible in 
this. I was ready to exclaim, I have some support 
here. I was only determined to examine it closely 
from this recollection — that a principle seemingly 
directed towards the mark of truth, sometimes varies 
from it the further it is pursued. Just so the man 
who aimed his rifle against the mark with perfect 
accuracy, and then varied it only the tenth part of 
an inch, could not perceive the difference unless he 
looked along the gun; but the further the false track 
for the ball was pursued, the wider was its variation 
from the proper course. I concluded to extend the 
essence of this second principle or pillar of our au- 
thor's to other things, and notice the result. I did 
so, and I should still have been pleased, and should 
still have floated along smilingly on the current of 
the author's thoughts, had it not been for a few facts 
which I could neither persuade, nor cut, nor drag out 
of my way. These stubborn, ungainly, and anti-sopo- 
rific facts I must reserve for the next chapter. 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 283 



CHAPTER LIV. 

MEANS OF RESCUE— COUNTERFEITS. 

A man once handed me a piece of silver coin ; it 
looked very bright and beautiful. One with whom 
I was about to exchange it, suspected its purity. 
This called for the judgment of others. Some pro- 
nounced it genuine ; others called it counterfeit. At 
length it was taken to a man in whose judgment all 
confided, and found to be impure. 

There was a school-teacher needed at a certain 
point, and one offered whose qualifications seemed to 
be sufficient. He was employed, and afterwards it 
became evident that his literary pretensions were all 
unfounded, and the community suffered because they 
were not better judges in the first instance. Some 
had pronounced him incompetent at once, but others 
he deceived. 

A poor man became possessed of a large bank- 
note. It looked well in his eye, but it was spurious. 
His children felt the loss which he sustained by be- 
ing overreached. "When he thought or when he con- 
versed on the subject, he remembered or he heard 
the following sentiments, namely, that things most 
precious are most counterfeited ; and that of course 
our interest in every thing is threatened in propor- 
tion to its value, from art or deception. Secondly, in 
every case under the sun we decide for ourselves, and 
if we judge incorrectly we take the consequences. 

There was a man who appeared to be one of 



284 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

worth and of modesty. He solicited the hand of a 
young female in marriage. Some told her that they 
believed him to be destitute of principle, and that his 
seeming virtues were all counterfeits. Her parents 
judged differently, and she thought differently. She 
became his, and lost her property, and her health, and 
her peace, to the last item of each. To see her sink, 
blighted all the earthly enjoyments of her parents. 

The following are the plain facts which I have 
mentioned as standing in my way: 

1. We are acquainted with nothing valuable 
which has not its counterfeits. We might offer a 
reward to any one who would point us to an ex- 
ception. We know that all the virtues, and all the 
correct sentiments or doctrines, together with every 
excellent trait of character or lovely grace, may be 
counterfeited ; therefore piety, or true religion, can- 
not be made a solitary exception, for it is made up of 
correct principles, lovely doctrines, and lovely graces 
or traits of character. If any religion should actually 
point us to a life which would not close, and to pleas- 
ures without a defect, I should call it more valuable 
than much wealth. 

2. The counterfeit often appears, to the incompe- 
tent, brighter and more captivating than the genuine 
original. 

3. "We are called upon to struggle for qualifica- 
tions to decide, and to aim after superior judgment, 
in proportion as our interest is threatened, and in 
accordance with the value of the thing presented. 
No one can become skilled in any branch of useful 
knowledge, without thought, industry, and research. 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 285 

The acquisition of that which is most valuable, gen- 
erally calls for most toil. The same benevolence 
which gave iron for our use, planned that we 
should dig it from the hills. The same kindness 
which formed the grains for our table, determined 
that we should rake the fields in the sun, before our 
bodies were thus nourished. To judge ably of things 
exceedingly valuable is worth uncommon industry. 

4. Men never complain of any thing being liable 
to counterfeit pretensions, religion excepted ; and 
they never complain of the necessity of their exer- 
tions to qualify themselves for judging between truth 
and falsehood in any case but in that of religious 
truth. 

5. Men never say that because it is difficult to 
tell false gold or silver from the genuine coin, there- 
fore they will cast all away; though thousands and 
millions are poor judges in such cases, from want of 
attention. 

6. Men do not say that there is no such thing as 
honor, or probity, or modesty, or benevolence, or sen- 
sibility, because such things may be skilfully coun- 
terfeited, so as to call for judgment and experience 
to detect the falsehood. 

7. We might make out a very pathetic case, of 
thousands of the youthful and inexperienced who 
had little opportunity to become judicious, and were 
liable to imposition every hour, and in connection 
with every coin and every character which could 
be named. AVe might say that we did not believe 
that our Creator would leave these unskilful crea- 
tures of his, to be liable to the loss of every earthly 



286 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

"blessing every hour, and even to the loss of that life 
which his own kind hand had bestowed. We might 
declaim with marvellous wisdom, and apparent sensi- 
bility, yet it would not alter the case in any respect : 
he has made the millions around us as we see them 
exposed, and calls to them for action. 

Application. After observing that Grod had made 
every thing which I had ever noticed, liable to false 
pretensions, and had called upon me to learn, and 
to improve, and to act wisely in all life's pursuits, 
I was afraid he had done so in one more instance ; 
and if exertion were necessary to obtain knowledge 
by which earthly blessings might be acquired or re- 
tained, then it might be necessary where things of 
still greater value were at stake. Perhaps the Cre- 
ator might be so consistent, that a train of uniform- 
ity could be seen to run through all his works. 

These and similar facts, with their collateral 
truths and unavoidable deductions, caused me to 
lay down the volume of the Ruins of Empires, un- 
quieted and unsupported. Indeed, I felt much more 
restless when, upon looking down into his notes 
at the bottom of his page for historic references, 
I there found again, falsehoods unalloyed with other 
material, and these untruths of the most notorious 
kind and of the most malignant texture. I was in- 
deed discouraged, as these facts thus influenced me ; 
and, since the controversy has been settled in my 
mind, I have made certain discoveries, and here is 
the proper place for their introduction. 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 287 



CHAPTER LV. 



COUNTERFEITS CONTINUED. 



I asked a man on the bank of the Illinois river, 
a swearing, Sabbath-hating man from New England, 
something concerning his observance of Bible pre- 
cepts. He raised his broad face with a satisfied grin, 
and asked me which Bible. He stated that the Mor- 
mons had a Bible, and that being a poor, illiterate 
man, he was unable to decide which was the word of 
God. The exultation within him seemed to say, u I 
have at last found out how to cast away that thirty 
years of preaching which I was compelled to hear in 
the land of the pilgrims." 

The following are some of the facts which I was 
able to see plainly before me at that time. 

1. This man is very capable, when it is necessary 
to distinguish between a valuable horse and one that 
is inferior. He can tell a dollar of real silver from 
one of copper, only plated with silver, as speedily as 
many a chemist. 

2. He is a better judge of a good or a bad bargain 
than many of the most able arithmeticians of the 
nation. It would be easier to cheat many a profound 
mathematician than to overreach him. He has la- 
bored to qualify himself in many things, and has 
succeeded so far that his knowledge in these matters 
surpasses that of millions of his race. 

3. He has not striven to acquaint himself with the 



288 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

Bible ; for, although reared in a land of Bibles and 
of schools, he is not able to tell the most common 
incidents on the holy page. Of the chronology of 
scriptural events, he is perfectly ignorant. He does 
not know whether Abraham or Cyrus of Persia lived 
first. You mi°;ht tell him that Pilate and Cesar were 
Israelites, and he would know no better. 

4. If he had put forth one half of the vigorous 
research after Bible knowledge, which he has ex- 
pended after skill in gainful pursuits, he would not 
have been ignorant ; yet his ignorance is now his 
excuse why he is unable to judge concerning reve- 
lation. 

If we were to receive a kind letter from some 
powerful earthly monarch, some splendid king, mak- 
ing us many very rich offers, and proposing to us 
honor and wealth, telling the terms over and over, 
that we might not mistake, it would be expected of 
us that we should inform ourselves perfectly as to 
who brought it, its contents, its authenticity, etc. 
If we were to have it a full year, and never read it 
at all, it would be deemed strange indeed. 

5. Most unbelievers, like this man, do not know 
one fortieth part of the great King's letter, nor one 
fortieth part of the evidence of its genuineness, nor 
one fortieth part of its beauties, its grandeur, its pro- 
posals, promises, or threatenings ; while one half the 
time they waste in wickedness, or at least in non- 
sense and frivolity, would be enough to furnish them 
with that knowledge the want of which aids in their 
ruin. 

Finally, the decisive characteristics and distin- 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 289 

guisliing marks between the true and false religions 
in the world, are more numerous and more noto- 
rious than are the marks between counterfeit coin 
and pure gold or silver ; yet men become judges in 
the last case, and remain uninformed in the other. 

If a young man were to hold up an article formed 
of brass, but made to resemble gold, and were to ex- 
claim, " I can see but little difference between this 
and gold ; I do not know that there is any : this 
seems as bright, and as smooth, and as beautiful as 
any I have seen ;" his friends would tell him that 
there was a difference between pure and pretended 
gold — that they were to be distinguished by the sight, 
and by the ring, and by trial or chemical tests. 
They would tell him that unless he would inform 
himself in this matter, he must suffer ; but that by 
noting two or three signs scrupulously, he might 
decide without danger. 

A FEW SIGNS IN RELIGION. 

1. True miracles are usually performed in the 
presence of enemies and haters of the religion about to 
be introduced, while false miracles are only pretended 
to be done in the company of the friends of the sys- 
tem upheld. 

2. True miracles are performed year after year so 
as to call the attention of all, and before the eyes of 
vast crowds of opposers ; while the opposite of this 
belongs to pretension. 

3. True miracles reach all the diseases to which the 
human frame is liable, not touching those only which 
frequently disappear of themselves and suddenly, and 

Cause and Cure. 1 3 



290 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

also extend to every variety of influence upon all visi- 
ble matter ; while counterfeit marvels command alone 
those things which often, with a spontaneous impulse, 
transpire of themselves. The sstme difference exists 
that there is between commanding fire to devour fifty 
men, or the sun to stand still, or the man born blind 
to see at once, or the lame one instantly to leap, and 
the art of charming the headache into ease, the agi- 
tated nerves into tranquillity, or commanding the 
internal and visible disorder to disappear. 

4. A system of truth sent from heaven always 
forbids what man is much inclined to love ; forbids 
sensual indulgence, fraud, wickedness, injustice, im- 
purity, revenge, hatred, feasting, revelry, and all that 
man by nature is prone to reach after. The Koran 
allows of many wives, of revenge, and unending or 
exterminating war. The pagan creeds enjoin or per- 
mit gluttony, intoxication, and sensuality of every 
kind, to any possible extent. 

5. God's revelation orders the doing of that which 
men do not love. A wicked man would rather go 
through days of painful toil than to hold prayer in 
his own house, or to spend one hour in heart devo- 
tion. It requires a change of soul, and promises a 
paradise of holiness. The false volumes claiming to 
be from heaven, ask for no regeneration or holiness 
of heart, and promise a futurity of carnal indulgence 
and satiated appetites. 

6. A true prophet is not applauded by a majority 
of the wicked, or by the mass of the depraved. He 
is generally disliked by those furthest from God, and 
spoken evil of by those who sink deepest in sin. He 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 291 

is often not only reviled, but put to death if the laws 
permit; but the false prophet is neither stoned nor 
sawn asunder. He is often extolled greatly by the 
most dissolute, and is at least tolerated or praised to 
some extent by the leaders in depravity or the officers 
of sin. 

Amidst the many marks or evident distinctions 
between true and false religion, Ave have not room 
here to notice more than one, and this may only be 
named and not dwelt upon at large. This last one is 
the test. In detecting false gold or marking pure, 
the chemical test deceives no one. The trial of the 
pure religion never fails those who test it by actual 
experiment. No other evidence is wanting; but it 
is hard to prevail on those who hate it to make this 
trial, to obey its precepts. 



292 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 



CHAPTER LVI. 

FURTHER INQUIRY. 

After laying down the book called Volney's 
Ruins, more doubtful of' the strength of my own 
army than I had ever been, I asked after Paine's Age 
of Reason, having heard of its making much noise 
and stir in the world. I read it through and laid it 
aside, and I must not detain the reader by giving a 
protracted history of its contents. 

The reader will scarcely believe me, or he will 
esteem me as having deserted the infidel ranks before 
I read it, if I tell him fully the impression it made on 
me. If the reader has pursued a course of ancient 
history, or will go and do it, or will look into the re- 
marks of Bishop Watson in his volume called "An 
Apology," he will be able to understand me when I 
tell him that the writings of Paine drove me further 
from his belief than I had ever been. I certainly ex- 
pected to find something excellent in a book which 
had caused tens of thousands to desert their faith, 
and millions to clap their hands. I read it, and I 
could not say that I found in it either suavity or 
philanthropy, dignity or sublimity, honesty or truth, 
but the opposite of them all — the opposite, although 
the writer was a man of talents ; what then must 
his subject be, or the side which he failed to sustain ? 
I was ready to exclaim, " If this moves the multi- 
tude, then what may not move them? If this 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 293 

pleases them, then they must surely love the side 
they advocate. If they are thus easily pleased, then 
it is with that for which they surely have a natural 
relish." 

I determined that I would read some on the oppo- 
site side, and that I would also at the same time take 
a more thinking review of my own objections to the 
religion of Christ. I inquired after a Bible which 
might have Christian notes in it. An old lady lent 
me hers, which I had often seen her poring over hours 
at a time. From her cast of mind I knew that in 
the work there must be thought, or she could not be 
thus engaged. It was Scott's Family Bible. In the 
year 1818 some copies had found their way to the 
forests of Tennessee. 

I read the Bible with Scott's notes. My objec- 
tions to the holy book, which were based upon my 
ignorance, disappeared as soon as I was informed. 
Before I describe this influence upon my mind, I 
must notice the sophism which was used to keep me 
from reading it, and which is still urged by many of 
Satan's able assistants, in many parts of the world, 
to keep others from reading commentaries on the 
Bible. " Read for yourself," they exclaim; "judge 
for yourself. Do not permit others to impose their 
belief upon you." 

The danger of this sophistry is that which ren- 
ders every other position which has peril in it danger- 
ous. It is half truth and half falsehood. The truth- 
ful, and therefore imposing part, is, that we never 
should copy the thoughts of others with neutral ser- 
vility, so as to let others judge for us. The erroneous 



294 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

part consists in this, that it seems to teach as though 
we could not avail ourselves of the labors of others 
without adopting their judgment. The truth is, we 
may avail ourselves of their toils without following 
their peculiar notions. We may make profitable use 
of their researches without adopting their ideas in the 
room of our own. We can use forty years' toil of 
another, and judge for ourselves all the time. This 
is done in every thing. When the little boy, or an 
unlettered Indian savage, asks his teacher concerning 
the component parts of gunpowder, their number and 
character, he can explain the whole to him in ten 
minutes. If he were to tell him, " There is the pow- 
der ; take it, look for yourself, examine for yourself, 
do not let others think for you ;" it might require 
years of investigation to discover that which a few 
minutes' explanation could teach ; and facts would 
so corroborate the statement, that it might be seen 
at once to be true. A commentator may remind us 
of a point of history which elucidates a chapter of 
holy writ, which history we may have known before, 
but never thought of applying ; or if not known before, 
we may look into the proper volume and be informed 
of its correctness ; while, although so important, we 
never should have thought of its use, had it not been 
for the labors of our author. Just so a man may 
show and explain to us a valuable piece of machine- 
ry, and as soon as he points out the main parts and 
explains their use, we see it at once, but we are judg- 
ing for ourselves all the time ; although, were it not 
for his instructions, it would take us a long time to 
make each discovery. A commentator tells of one or 



.THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 295 

two verses in different parts of the Bible which ex- 
plain fully the one we are reading. "We look at these 
and find it so, and feel that it is perfectly satisfactory, 
judging for ourselves; although we might not have 
known of their existence or remembered seeing them, 
in years of reading, had it not been for his assistance. 
I read an author on philosophy or chemistry, and he 
tells me of many things which instruct me, and I 
rejoice that his labors preceded mine ; but if he ad- 
vances theories which I cannot credit, I do not receive 
them. A commentator may give me an explanation 
of a passage which does not seem satisfactory, and I 
cast it aside; but when he refers to a certain verse 
of prophecy as describing a political event some cen- 
turies before it took place, I look at the verse, consult 
history, and compare dates, and rejoice that others 
toiled before me. I am in this way brought to exam- 
ine that with close attention which I otherwise might 
have passed over without seeing for half a lifetime. 

It does seem to be an ohject of moment with some 
invisible evil one, to prevent inquirers reading the 
Scriptures with notes, if we may judge from the uni- 
formity with which unconverted men avoid it with- 
out any proper cause. Much of the information 
which they need, and which they might have acquired 
in the morning of life, they have neglected to seek, 
and the time is much spent, and too far past to 
recover. Unless they receive it now by the aid of 
others, they never will know the fourth part of it. 

I never myself felt inclined to obey the counsel 
which said, " Do not read the opinions of others in 
matters of Scripture," for I never intended to take 



296 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

the views of others in any thing, unless they appeared 
to me as correct, and then I was resolved not to be 
persuaded away or frightened from them. The de- 
sire to gratify the pride of originality should never 
keep us from being instructed, when that favor offers 
itself. After I had read Scott's Family Bible, I felt 
like reading it again. It is true that I was half driven 
from infidelity by the infidel authors. To find no aid, 
and no truth or loveliness where I had looked, for it, 
inclined me to listen with more calmness and impar- 
tiality to the other side. 

In Scott I found no controversy tinctured with 
smutty, indecent filth. I found no self-complacent 
ridicule, no coxcomical jeerings, no truth twisted, or 
mixed up with nine tenths of actual untruth. The 
difference between the two styles and the two modes 
is only known to those w T ho have felt the sudden 
transition from one to the other. The unbelieving 
writers seemed unwilling to allow that the slightest 
lovely or commendable trait belonged to Moses, or 
Samuel, or Paul, or John, or any other good man. 
They seemed all more than ready to credit at once, 
and on any authority, any thing of such men. They 
seemed to have an appetite for attributing to them 
things the most enormous and inexpressibly hateful. 
I had heard, when very young, that this indicated the 
condition of heart belonging to the possessor, and 
invariably proved something to be amiss in his own 
bosom ; but I did not see this so distinctly, and feel 
so sensibly that it was true, until I witnessed the 
way Scott wrote of his adversaries in debate and the 
haters of the system he loved. Although they might 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 297 

be infidels, it appeared to me that he would have 
avoided telling a lie about them. I could not detect 
a wilful falsehood — shall I say, not one in a page ? — 
no, not one in the whole work ; for my life I could 
not. This made a strange impression upon me after 
the company I had been keeping. It seemed from 
the way he wrote, as though the salvation of infidels 
in heaven, or their preparation for it, would give him 
more exultation than it would to have the world 
believe a thousand slanders about them. This differ- 
ence of temper between the advocates and the oppos- 
ers of Christianity, made me more willing to read on ; 
but it was what I afterwards discovered which settled 
me as on the rock of truth. While reading Scott, I 
found that some passages which had appeared dark- 
ness itself to me, were indeed full of instruction, 
of beauty, and of glory. I discovered that my infi- 
delity had been based upon my ignorance, encircled 
with the love of sin, while its practice had beclouded 
and deformed my soul. Different parts of the sacred 
Scriptures which had appeared to me contradictory, 
or without meaning, were incontrovertibly shown to 
harmonize, and full of light to strengthen and sup- 
port each other. 

Let not the reader suppose that I could say un- 
doubtingly, "I believe this book to be the Book of 
God," after it had been proved to me in different ways 
a hundred times. Physicians say of the body of man, 
that it may be formed into habits. They say of some 
intermittent fevers long continued, that the chill re- 
turns in accordance with the habits of the system. 
Many habits of the flesh run on, even when opposed 
13* 



298 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

by our enlightened wishes. Habits of infidelity often 
exist when wishes militate, and after an instructed 
judgment tells us better. The feeling of my heart 
made it necessary that I should continue to read, after 
I could say in truth concerning the Bible, "I have 
more evidence a hundred-fold that this is God's let- 
ter, than I have of any past occurrence which I did 
not see." In connection with Scott, I read Bonnet's 
Inquiries, Paley, Watson, Chalmers, etc., and was 
pleased and astonished to see them all evince the 
meekness, and modesty, and benevolent forbearance, 
which struck me in the author first named. 

They all instructed me. This investigation went 
on for many months. The considerations which agi- 
tated my mind, raising or sinking it, swaying me to 
the right or left, while this reading and this research 
went on, shall be commenced in the next chapter. 
For the present I wish to say to the Christian reader, 
for the unbeliever could not understand me — I wish 
to say, in the language of another, that which no 
sinner ever deserved to have the privilege of saying — 
that which, if any ever deserved to have no permis- 
sion to pronounce, I have thus deserved ; but with my 
face in the dust, while a joy inexpressible fills my 
soul, I can say, " I know that my Redeemer liveth, 
and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the 
earth. And though after my skin, worms destroy 
this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God ; whom I 
shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and 
not another." 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 299 

CHAPTER LVII. 

RELIGIOUS BELIEF AT DEATH. 

It does not seem a matter of moment where I 
begin in trying to present thoughts which passed 
through my mind, while asking whether or not the 
Scriptures were of God. At different times, and 
under various temperaments of soul, I meditated on 
many points which made on me a lasting impression. 
Sometimes they spurred me on to further thought, or 
to more industrious reading. Sometimes they seemed 
to declare that God had revealed his wishes to men. 
Whether or not these considerations will thus affect 
others, I cannot tell. In the narration it matters not, 
I repeat again, where I begin. I shall commence by 
repeating a few of my thoughts on death. 

OBSERVATIONS ON MAN'S DEPARTURE. 

While attending medical lectures at Philadel- 
phia, I heard from the lady with whom I boarded an 
account of certain individuals who were dead, to all 
appearance, during the prevalence of the yellow-fever 
in that city, and yet recovered. The fact that they 
saw, or fancied they saw things in the world of spirits, 
awakened my curiosity. 

She told me of one with whom she was acquaint- 
ed, who was so confident of his discoveries that he had 
seemingly thought of little else afterwards, and it had 
then been twenty-four years. These things appeared 
philosophically strange to me, for the following reasons. 



300 CAUSE AND CUKE OF INFIDELITY. 

First, those who from bleeding or from any other 
cause reach a state of syncope, or the ordinary faint- 
ing condition, think not at all, or are unable to remem- 
ber any mental action. When they recover, it ap- 
pears either that the mind was suspended, or they 
were unable to recollect its operations. There are 
those who believe on either side of this question. 
Some contend for suspension ; others deny it, but say 
we never can recall thoughts formed w r hile the mind 
is in that state, for reasons not yet understood. 

Secondly, those who in approaching death, reach 
the first state of insensibility and recover from it, are 
unconscious of any mental activity, and have no 
thoughts which thev can recall. 

Thirdly, if this is so, why then should those who 
had travelled farther into the land of death, and had 
sunk deeper into the condition of bodily inaction, 
when recovered, be conscious of mental action, and 
remember thoughts more vivid than ever had flashed 
across their souls in the health of boyhood, under a 
vernal sun, and on a plain of flowers ? 

After this I felt somewhat inclined to watch, 
when it became my business year after year to stand 
by the bed of death. That which I saw was not 
calculated to protract and deepen the slumbers of 
infidelity, but rather to dispose towards a degree of 
restlessness, or, at least, to farther observation. I 
knew that the circle of stupor, or insensibility, drawn 
around life, and through which all either pass or seem 
to pass who go out of life, was urged by some to 
prove that the mind could not exist unless it be in 
connection with organized matter. For the same 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 301 

reason, others have contended that our souls must 
sleep until the morning of the resurrection, when we 
shall regain our bodies. That which I witnessed for 
myself pushed me, willing or unwilling, in a differ- 
ent direction. Before I relate these facts, I must 
offer something which may illustrate to a certain ex- 
tent the thoughts towards which they pointed. 

If we were to stand on the edge of a very deep 
ditch or gulf, on the distant verge of which a curtain 
hangs which obstructs the view, we might feel a wish 
to know what is beyond it, or whether there is any 
light in that unseen land. Suppose we were to let 
down a ladder, protracted greatly in its length, and 
ask a bold adventurer to descend and make discov- 
eries. He goes to the bottom and then returns, tell- 
ing us that there he could see nothing ; that all was 
total darkness. We might very naturally infer the 
absence of light there ; but if we concluded that his 
powers of vision had been annihilated, or that there 
could surely be no light in the land beyond the cur- 
tain, because, to reach that land, a very dark ravine 
must be crossed, it would have been weak reasoning ; 
so much so, that, if it contented us, we must be 
easily satisfied. It gave me pain to notice many, 
nay, many physicians, who, on these very premises, 
or on something equally weak, were quieting them- 
selves in the deduction that the soul sees no more 
after death. Suppose this adventurer descends again, 
and then ascends the other side so near the top that 
he can reach the curtain and slightly lift it. When 
he returns, he tells us that his vision had been sus- 
pended totally as before ; but that he went nearer 



302 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

the distant land, and it was revived again — that, as 
the curtain was lifted, he saw brighter light than he 
had ever seen before. We would say to him, " For a 
certain distance vision is suspended ; but inaction is 
not loss of sight. Only travel on further, and you 
will see again." We can understand that any one 
might go to the bottom of that ravine a thousand 
times — he might remain there for days, and, if he 
went no farther, he could tell on his return nothing 
of the unseen regions. 

Something like this was illustrated by the facts 
noted during many years' employment in the medical 
profession. A few cases may be taken as examples. 

I was called to see a female who departed under 
an influence which causes the patient to faint again 
and again, more and still more profoundly, until life 
is extinct. For the information of physicians, I men- 
tion, it was uterine hemorrhage from inseparably 
attached placenta. When recovered from the first 
condition of syncope, she appeared as unconscious, or 
as destitute of activity of spirit, as others usually do. 
She sunk again and revived ; it was still the same. 
She fainted more profoundly still ; and, when awake 
again, she appeared as others usually do who have 
no thoughts which they can recall. At length she 
appeared entirely gone. It did seem as though the 
struggle was for ever past. Her weeping relatives 
clasped their hands and exclaimed, " She is dead!" 
but, unexpectedly, she waked once more, and glancing 
her eyes on one who sat near, exclaimed, " Oh, Sarah, 
I was at an entirely new place !" and then sunk to 
remain insensible to the things of this world. 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 303 

Why she, like others in fainting, should have no 
thoughts which she could recall, when not so near 
death as she afterwards was when she had thought, 
I could not clearly explain. Why her greatest activ- 
ity of mind appeared to happen during her nearest 
approach to the future world, and while so near that 
from that stage scarcely any ever return who once 
reach it, seemed somewhat perplexing to me. I 
remembered that in the case recorded by Dr. Rush, 
w T here the man recovered who was to all appearance 
entirely dead, his activity of mind was unusual. 
He thought he heard and saw things unutterable. 
He did not know whether he was altogether dead or 
not. St. Paul says he was in a condition so near to 
death, that he could not tell whether he was out of 
the body or not ; but that he heard things unutterable. 
I remembered that Tennant of New Jersey, and his 
friends, could not decide whether or not he had been 
out of the body ; but he appeared to be so some days, 
and thought his discoveries unutterable. The man 
who cuts his finger and faints, recovering speedily, 
has no thoughts, or remembers none ; he does not ap- 
proach the distant edge of the ravine. These facts 
appeared to me poorly calculated to advance the phil- 
osophical importance of one who has discovered from 
sleep, or from syncope, that there is no other exist- 
ence because this is all which we have seen. They 
appeared to me rather poorly calculated to promote 
the tranquillity of one seeking the comforts of athe- 
ism. For my own part, I never did desire the con- 
solations of everlasting nothingness ; I never could 
covet a plunge beneath the black wave of eternal for- 



304 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

getfulness, and cannot say that these observations in 
and of themselves gave me pain. But it was evident 
that thousands of the scientific were influenced by 
the weight of a small pebble to adopt a creed, pro- 
vided that creed contradicted holy writ. I had read 
and heard too much of man's depravity and of his love 
for darkness, not to see that it militated against my 
system of deism, if it should appear that the other- 
wise learned should neglect to observe, or if observant, 
should be satisfied with the most superficial view, 
and seizing some shallow and questionable facts, 
build hastily upon them a fabric for eternity. 

In the cases of those who, recovering from yellow- 
fever, thought they had enjoyed intercourse with the 
world of spirits, they were individuals who had ap- 
peared to be dead. 

The following fact took place in recent days. 
Similar occurrences impressed me during years of 
observation. In the city of St. Louis, a female de- 
parted who had a rich portion of the comforts of 
Christianity. It was after some kind of spasm that 
was strong enough to have been the death struggle, 
that she said in a whisper, being unable to speak 
aloud, to her young pastor, " I had a sight of home, 
and I saw my Saviour." 

There were others who, after wading as far as 
that which seemed to be the middle of the river, and 
returning, thought they had seen a different world, 
and that they had had an antepast of hell. But these 
cases we pass over ; and, in the next chapter, look at 
facts which point along the same road we have been 
travelling. 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 305 



CHAPTER LVIII. 

THE SUBJECT CONTINUED. 

I was surprised to find that the condition of mind 
in the case of those who were dying, and of those 
who only thought themselves dying, differed very 
widely. I had supposed that the joy or the grief of 
death originated from the fancy of the patient, one 
supposing himself very near to great happiness, and 
the other expecting speedy suffering. My discoveries 
seemed to overturn this theory. Why should not the 
professor of religion who believes himself dying when 
he really is not, rejoice as readily as when he is de- 
parting, if his joy is the offspring of expectation? 
Why should not the alarm of the scoffer who believes 
himself dying and is not, be as uniform and as deci- 
sive as when he is in the river, if it comes of fancied 
evil or cowardly terrors ? The same questions I asked 
myself again and again. I have no doubt that there 
is some strange reason connected with our natural 
disrelish for truth, which causes so many physicians, 
after seeing such facts so often, never to observe them. 
During twenty years of observation, I found the state 
of the soul belonging to the dying was uniformly and 
materially unlike that of those who only supposed 
themselves departing. This is best made plain by 
noting cases which occurred. 

1. There was a man who believed himself con- 



306 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

verted, and his friends, judging from his walk, hoped 
with him. He was seized with disease, and believed 
himself within a few paces of the gate of futurity. 
He felt no joy, his mind was dark and his soul 
clouded. His exercises were painful, and the oppo- 
site of every enjoyment. He was not dying. He 
recovered. He had not been in the death-stream. 
After this he was taken again. He believed himself 
dying, and he was not mistaken. All was peace, 
serenity, hope, triumph. 

2. There was a man who mocked at holy things. 
He became seriously diseased, and supposed himself 
sinking into the death-slumber. He was not fright- 
ened. His fortitude and composure were his pride, 
and the boast of his friends. The undaunted firm- 
ness with which he could enter futurity was spoken 
of exultingly. It was a mistake. He was not in the 
condition of dissolution. His soul never had been on 
the line between two worlds. After this he was taken 
ill again. He supposed as before that he was enter- 
ing the next state, and he really was ; but his soul 
seemed to feel a different atmosphere. The horrors 
of these scenes have been often described, and are 
often seen. I need not endeavor to picture such a 
departure here. The only difficulty in which I was 
thrown by such cases was, "A¥hy was he not thus 
agonized before, when he thought himself departing ? 
Can it be possible that we can stand so precisely on 
the dividing line, that the gale from both this and 
the coming world may blow upon our cheek ? Can 
we have a taste of the exercises of the next territory 
before we enter it ?" When I attempted to account 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 307 

for this on the simple ground of bravery and coward- 
ice, I was met by the two following facts. 

First, I have known those — the cases are not un- 
frequent — who were brave, who had stood unflinch- 
ing in battle's whirlpool. They had resolved never to 
disgrace their system of unbelief by a trembling death. 
They had called to Christians in the tone of resolve, 
saying, " I can die as coolly as you can." I had seen 
those die from whom entire firmness might fairly be 
expected. I had heard groans, even if the teeth were 
clenched for fear of complaint, such as I never w r ish 
to hear again ; and I had looked into countenances, 
such as I hope never to see again. 

Again, I had seen cowards die. I had seen those 
depart who were naturally timid, who expected them- 
selves to meet death with fright and alarm. I had 
heard such, as it were, sing before Jordan was half 
forded. I had seen faces wdiere, palled as they were, 
I beheld more celestial triumph than I had ever wit- 
nessed anywhere else. In that voice there was a 
sweetness, and in that eye there was a glory, which 
I never could have fancied in the death-spasms, if I 
had not been near. 



308 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

CHAPTER LIX. 

THE SUBJECT CONTINUED. 

The condition of the soul, when the death-stream 
is entered, is not the same with that which it often 
"becomes when it is almost passed. The brave man 
who steps upon the ladder across the dark ravine, 
with eye undaunted and haughty spirit, changes fear- 
fully, in many cases, when he comes near enough to 
the curtain to lift it. The Christian who goes down 
the ladder pale and disconsolate, oftentimes starts 
with exultation and tries to burst into a song when 
almost across. 

Illustration. A revolutionary officer, wounded 
at the battle of Grermantown, was praised for his 
patriotism. The war ended, but he continued still 
to fight, in a different way, under the banner of one 
whom he called the Captain of his salvation. The 
applause of man never made him too proud to talk 
of the Man of Calvary. The hurry of life's driving 
pursuits could not consume all his time, or make 
him forget to kneel by the side of his consort, in the 
circle of his children, and anticipate a happy meeting 
in a more quiet clime. 

To abbreviate this history, his life was such that 
those who knew him believed, if any one ever did die 
happily, this man would be one of that class. I saw 
him when the time arrived. He said to those around 
him, " I am not as happy as I could wish, or as I had 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 309 

expected. I cannot say that I distrust my Saviour, 
for I know in whom I have believed ; but I have not 
that pleasing readiness to depart which I had looked 
for." This distressed his relatives beyond expression. 
His friends were greatly pained, for they had looked 
for triumph. His departure was very slow, and still 
his language was, " I have no exhilaration or delightful 
readiness in my travel." The weeping circle pressed 
around him. Another hour passed. His hands and 
his feet became entirely cold. The feeling of heart 
remained the same. Another hour passes, and his 
vision has grown dim, but the state of his soul is un- 
changed. His daughter seemed as though her body 
could not sustain her anguish of spirit, if her father 
should cross the valley before the cloud passed from 
his sun. Before his hearing vanished, she made an 
agreement with him that at any stage as he travelled 
on, if he had a discovery of advancing glory, or a fore- 
taste of heavenly delight, he should give her a certain 
token with his hand ; his hands he could still move, 
cold as they were. She sat holding his hand hour 
after hour. In addition to his sight, his hearing at 
length failed. After a time he appeared almost un- 
conscious of any thing, and the obstructed breathing 
peculiar to death was advanced near its termination, 
when he gave the token to his pale, but now joyous 
daughter ; and the expressive flash of exultation was 
seen to spread itself through the stiffening muscles of 
his face. "When his child asked him to give a signal 
if he had any happy view of heavenly light, with the 
feelings and opinions I once owned I could have 
asked, " Do you suppose that the increase of the 



310 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

death-chill will add to his happiness ? Are you to 
expect, that as his eyesight leaves, and as his hear- 
ing becomes confused, and his breathing convulsed, 
and as he sinks into that cold, fainting, sickening 
condition of pallid death, his exultation is to com- 
mence ?" 

It did then commence. Then is the time when 
many who enter the dark valley cheerless, begin to 
see something that transports ; but some are too low 
to tell of it, and their friends think they departed 
under a cloud, when they really did not. It is at 
this stage of the journey that the enemy of God, who 
started with look of defiance and words of pride, 
seems to meet with that which alters his views and 
expectations ; but he cannot tell it, for his tongue 
can no longer move. 

Those who inquire after and read the death of the 
wife of the celebrated John Newton, will find a very 
plain and very interesting instance where the Saviour 
seemed to meet with a smiling countenance his dying 
servant, when she had advanced too far to call back 
to her sorrowful friends, and tell them of the pleas- 
ing news. 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 311 



CHAPTER LX. 



THE SUBJECT CONTINUED. 



My attention was awakened very much by ob- 
serving the dying fancies of the servants of this 
world, differing with such characteristic singularity 
from the fancies of the departing Christian. It is no 
uncommon thing for those who die to believe they 
see, or hear, or feel that which appears only fancy to 
by-standers. Their friends believe that it is the over- 
turning of their intellect. I am not about to enter 
into the discussion of the question, whether it is or is 
not always fancy. Some attribute it to more than 
fancy; but inasmuch as in many instances the mind 
is deranged while its habitation is falling into ruins, 
and inasmuch as it is the common belief that it is 
only imagination of which I am writing, we will look 
at it under the name of fancy. 

The fanciful views of the dying servants of sin, 
and the devoted friends of Christ, were strangely dif- 
ferent as far as my observation extended. One who 
had been an entire sensualist and a mocker at relig- 
ion, while dying, appeared in his senses in. all but 
one thing. " Take that black man from the room," 
said he. He was answered that there was none in 
the room. He replied, " There he is, standing near 
the window. His presence is very irksome to me, 
take him out." After a time, again and again his 



312 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

call was, "Will no one remove him? There he is; 
surely some one will take him away." 

I was mentioning to another physician my sur- 
prise that he should have been so much distressed 
even if there had been many blacks in the room, for 
he had been waited on by them day and night for 
many years; and also my wonder that the mind had 
not been diseased in some other respect, when he 
told me the names of two others, his patients, men 
of similar lives, who were tormented with the same 
fancy, and in the same way, while dying. 

A young female who called the Man of Calvary 
her greatest friend, was, when dying, in her senses 
in all but one particular. " Mother," she would say, 
pointing in a certain direction, " do you see those 
beautiful creatures ?" Her mother would answer, 
" No, there is no one there, my dear." She would 
reply, "Well, that is strange. I never saw such 
countenances and such attire. My eye never rested 
on any thing so lovely." Oh, says one, this is all 
imagination, and the notions of a mind collapsing ; 
wherefore tell of it ? My answer is, that I am not 
about to dispute, or to deny that it is fancy ; but the 
fancies differ in features and in texture. Some in 
their derangement call out, " Catch me, I am sink- 
ing ; hold me, I am falling;" others say, "Do you 
hear that music ? Oh, were ever notes so celes- 
tial !" This kind of notes, and these classes of fancies 
belonged to different classes of individuals, and who 
they were, was the item which attracted my wonder. 
Such things are noticed by few, and remembered by 
almost none; but I am inclined to believe, that if 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 313 

notes were kept of such, cases, volumes of interest 
might be formed. 

My last remark here, reader, is, that we neces- 
sarily speak somewhat in the dark of such matters, 
but you and I will know more shortly. Both of us 
will see and feel for ourselves where we cannot be 
mistaken, in the course of a very few months, or 
years. 



Cause and Cure. 



14 



514 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 



CHAPTER LXI. 

PREJUDICES— THE MOSAIC LAW. 

While prosecuting the inquiry, " Is the Infidel or 
the Christian in the right ?" my surprise was some- 
what excited when I looked at disposition attentively. 
My companions around the card-table, or the festive 
board, spoke bitterly of the ancient Jews or early 
Christians. They were like the man who resolved to 
believe that the Israelites were eaters of human flesh, 
because the prophet called to the fowls of the air to 
feast on the slain at a certain battle. The slightest 
sentence, or part of a sentence in the Bible, seemed 
sufficient, as soon as they put upon it their own con- 
struction, to cause them to believe any thing concern- 
ing the Jews or Christians, no matter how abominable 
or how dreadful. This has been true, according to 
my experience, for the last thirty years, that unbe- 
lievers think so lightly of believers, that on very faint 
evidence they will receive against them and coolly 
credit accusations the most detestable and to any 
variety. My companions in unbelief, and all who 
wrote for them, seemed to feel very differently tow- 
ards the heathen. The pagans of every age enjoyed 
their admiration, and their most charitable conjec- 
tures. They praised their poetry, extolled their ora- 
tory, stood in ecstasy at their paintings, wondered at 
their bravery, saw mines of wisdom in all their cus- 
toms, and passed their defects in silence, or spoke of 
them in tones of excuse or mitigation. T could not 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 315 

but notice the difference when.. I opened a volume of 
some unbeliever, or listened to the conversation of 
others, while speaking of the descendants of Abra- 
ham. They avowed that they believed these Israel- 
ites the most contemptible and abominable people on 
the earth. I observed, for I could not avoid it, this 
disposition to hear of that ancient people things the 
most hateful, and to believe readily and with a kind 
of pleasure ; but I did not let this weigh with me or 
influence me, until I had noticed the grounds of their 
belief, and the reasons we all have to think well or 
ill of either Jew or pagan. My companions offered 
the writings of these ancient people, of course, as the 
evidence from which their views originated. We all 
judge of those who lived long since from the books of 
antiquity. I cannot place before the reader clearly 
the light in which I viewed this disposition promptly 
and ardently to admire the heathen, while the wor- 
shippers of Jehovah were as readily and as heartily 
detested, unless I notice the books on either side from 
which we draw our estimates. 

Let us for a short space observe justly and fairly 
the reasons they have to think well of pagan moral- 
ity, and then the reasons for thinking poorly of the 
principles belonging to that people among whom the 
Old Testament was first promulgated. 

Reasons for thinking well of the heathen. 
At the age of fourteen, an old man, a grey-headed 
preacher, put into my hands some of the Latin 
poets to read.'* These writers, Virgil and Horace, 

* Centuries will hardly surpass the character of this old 
man for excellence. He had learned at Princeton to read and 



31G CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

lived near the time when Matthew lived, and wrote 
not far from the time when Luke and John wrote. 
Their poetic talents were enough to make even a boy- 
feel them. I was, however, inexpressibly astonished 
to find that it was sodomy which one of them was 
extolling ! Those far-famed lovesongs, so much read, 
were sung to boys by the leading authors, in the age 
so much celebrated for its polish — the reading age. 
Sins too abominable to think of, even an instant, 
were, I discovered, dressed up with all the taste of 
the ablest and most musical verse. If I inquired 
within myself whether or not the most fashionable 
and the most accomplished people read the writings 
of their own most accomplished authors at that time, 
I was brought, as seemed to me, to something like 
an understanding of what another writer states, who 
lived near the same time. He said, " It is a shame 
even to speak of those things which are done of them 
in secret."^ After reading the history of many of 
their principal men— see Plutarch's Lives — I discov- 
ered that things too detestably disgusting to name, 
were not considered among them as the least out of 
the way or improper. After this I read of their hu- 
man sacrifices, their cruel amusements, long-contin- 
ued tortures, etc., until compelled to confess that it 
would not be strange if some should begin to hate 
the ancient pagans for their hard-heartedness and 

to admire the classics. The church in that day, honored the 
heathen songs more than the infidels. They could read them 
with more ability, and were more capable of appreciating their 
beauties. I am not certain that there has been, or is like to be 
any material alteration. 
* Ephesians 5 : 12. 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 317 

obscenity. Their disgusting customs and their bloody 
rites were not a matter of conjecture or ambiguous 
supposition. It was knoivn of them, that their doings 
were too nauseous to write particularly about ; but 
my infidel associates appeared not to know this, or at 
least not to notice it. They spoke but seldom, and 
only in extenuation. I then turned to the Jewish 
writings, to Old or New Testament authors, deter- 
mined to look at what my infidel friends declared 
proof enough to consider the children of Jacob the 
most abominable people upon earth. If I read Luke 
and compared it with one Latin poet who lived then, 
or St. John and placed it beside another, the result 
need not be named. Any one will see how such a 
comparison must terminate. But this would not be 
entirely fair, because it was mainly from the Old 
Testament page that the declaimers supposed they 
could prove the Jews to be the most detestable people 
on earth. 

Reasons for thinking ill of the Jews. When I 
went to Moses and the prophets, to see why the world 
at large so readily believed in the cruelty, the igno- 
ranee, the pollution, and the injustice of the circum- 
cised nation, the first things I read in their laws and 
domestic regulations, were fair and just enough. I 
read further and was ready to confess, that thus far 
I had met with that which seemed to me wise, and 
proper, and impartial. After reading on, my admira- 
tion was excited, and I was ready to search, and to 
meditate, and to weigh the spirit and the principle 
contained in these statutes. I then read many things 
such as follow. I wish the reader would observe 



318 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

closely the spirit of all the verses I am ahout to quote. 
I wish the reader, in some amiable disposition of soul, 
in some quiet hour, in some evening of sunshine, and 
in a sensitive condition of the affections, would peruse 
such passages as follow, and make the simply truth- 
ful inferences. Let us judge if we have reason to 
suppose the families controlled by such precepts, the 
most cruel and the most hateful of our sinful race. 

Principles that are not cruel. 

They are not revengeful. 

They are not filthy. 

" If a man shall cause a field or vineyard to be 
eaten, and shall put in his beast, and shall feed in 
another man's field ; of the best of his own field, and 
of the best of his own vineyard, shall he make resti- 
tution. 

" Thou shalt neither vex a stranger nor oppress 
him, for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. 

" Ye shall not afflict any widow or fatherless child. 
If thou afflict them in any wise, and they cry at all 
unto me, I will surely hear their cry ; and my wrath 
shall wax hot, and I will kill you with the sword ; 
and your wives shall be widows, and your children 
fatherless. 

" If thou at all take thy neighbor's raiment to 
pledge, thou shalt deliver it unto him by that the sun 
goeth down ; for that is his covering only, it is his 
raiment for his skin : wherein shall he sleep ? And 
it shall come to pass, when he crieth unto me, that I 
will hear ; for I am gracious. 

" Thou shalt not revile the magistrates, nor curse 
the ruler of thy people. 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 319 

" Ye shall be holy men unto me ; neither shall ye 
eat any flesh that is torn of beasts in the field ; ye 
shall cast it to the dogs. 

" Thou shalt not raise a false report : put not thy 
hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness. 

" Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil, 
neither shalt thou speak in a cause to decline after 
many to wrest judgment. 

" If thou meet thine enemy's ox or his ass going 
astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again. 
If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee lying 
under his burden, and wouldest forbear to help him, 
thou shalt surely help with him. Thou shalt not 
wrest the judgment of thy poor in his cause. Keep 
thee far from a false matter ; and the innocent and 
the righteous slay thou not ; for I will not justify the 
wicked. 

" And thou shalt take no gift ; for the gift blind- 
eth the wise, and perverteth the words of the right- 
eous. 

"Also thou shalt not oppress a stranger; for ye 
know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were stran- 
gers in the land of Egypt. And six years thou shalt 
sow thy land, and shalt gather in the fruits thereof; 
but the seventh year thou shalt let it rest and lie still, 
that the poor of thy people may eat ; and what they 
leave the beasts of the field shall eat. In like man- 
ner thou shalt deal with thy vineyard and with thy 
oliveyard." Exodus, chapters 22, 23. 

" None of you shall approach to any that is near 
of kin to him, to uncover their nakedness : I am the 
Lord. Thou shalt not lie carnally with thy neigh- 



320 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

bor's wife, to defile thyself with her. Defile not ye 
yourselves in any of these things ; for in all these 
the nations are defiled which I cast out before you ; 
and the land is defiled ; therefore do I visit the iniq- 
uity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out 
her inhabitants. Ye shall therefore keep my statutes 
and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these 
abominations ; neither any of your own nation, nor 
any stranger that sojourneth among you : for all these 
abominations have the men of the land done, which 
were before you, and the land is defiled. 

" And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou 
shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither 
shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest. And 
thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou 
gather every grape of thy vineyard ; thou shalt leave 
them for the poor and stranger : I am the Lord your 
God. 

" Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither 
lie one to another. 

" And ye shall not swear by my name falsely : I 
am the Lord. 

" Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbor, neither 
rob him: the wages of him that is hired, shall not 
abide with thee all nidit until the morning:. 

" Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stum- 
bling-block before the blind, but shalt fear thy God : 
I am the Lord. 

"Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment; 
thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor 
honor the person of the mighty ; but in righteousness 
shalt thou judge thy neighbor. 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 321 

" Thou shalt not go up and down as a tale-bearer 
among thy people ; neither shalt thou stand against 
the blood of thy neighbor. 

" Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart : 
thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor, and not 
suffer sin upon him. 

" Thou shalt not avenge > nor bear any grudge 
against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love 
thy neighbor as thyself: I am the Lord. 

" Ye shall fear every man his mother and his 
father, and keep my Sabbaths : I am the Lord your 
God. 

" Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and 
honor the face of the old man, and fear thy God : I 
am the Lord. 

" And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, 
ye shall not vex him. But the stranger that dwelleth 
with you shall be unto you as one born among you, 
and thou shalt love him as thyself ; for ye were stran- 
gers in the land of Egypt : I am the Lord your God. 

" Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in 
rneteyard, in weight, or in measure. Just balances, 
just weights, a just ephah, and a just him shall ye 
have : I am the Lord your God, which brought you 
out of the land of Egypt." Leviticus, chs. IS, 19. 

" If there be among you a poor man of one of thy 
brethren within any of thy gates in the land which 
the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden 
thy heart, nor shut thy hand from thy poor brother : 
but thou shalt open thy hand wide unto him, and 
shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need, in that 
which he wanteth. Beware that there be not a 
14* 



322 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

thought in thy wicked heart, saying, The seventh 
year, the year of release, is at hand ; and thine eye 
be evil against thy poor brother, and thou givest 
him naught ; and he cry unto the Lord against thee, 
and it be sin unto thee. Thou shalt surely give him, 
and thy heart shall not be grieved when thou givest 
unto him ; because that for this thing the Lord thy 
God shall bless thee in all thy works, and in all that 
thou puttest thy hand unto. For the poor shall never 
cease out of the land : therefore I command thee, 
saying, Thou shalt open thy hand wide unto thy 
brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land. 

" And if thy brother, a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew 
woman, be sold unto thee, and serve thee six years, 
then in the seventh year thou shalt let him go free 
from thee. And when thou sendest . him out free 
from thee, thou shalt not let him go away empty. 
Thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock, and 
out of thy floor, and out of thy wine-press ; of that 
wherewith the Lord thy God hath blessed thee, thou 
shalt give unto him. And thou shalt remember that 
thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the 
Lord thy God redeemed thee ; therefore I command 
thee this thing to-day. 

"When thou goest out to battle against thine 
enemies — the priest shall approach and speak unto 
the people, and shall say unto them, Hear, Israel — 
the Lord your God goeth with you, to fight for you 
against your enemies, to save you. 

"And the officers shall speak unto the people, 
saying, AVhat man is there that hath built a new 
house, and hath not dedicated it? let him go and 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 323 

return unto his house, lest he die in the battle, and 
another man dedicate it. What man is he that hath 
planted a vineyard, and hath not yet eaten of it ? let 
him also go and return unto his house, lest he die in 
the battle, and another man eat of it. And what 
man is there that hath betrothed a wife, and hath 
not taken her ? let him go and return unto his house, 
lest he die in the battle, and another man take her. 
And the officers shall speak further unto the people, 
and they shall say, What man is there that is fearful 
and faint-hearted ? let him go and return unto his 
house, lest his brethren's heart faint as well as his 
heart. 

" Thou shalt not see thy brother's ox or his sheep 
go astray, and hide thyself from them : thou shalt in 
any case bring them again unto thy brother. And if 
thy brother be not nigh unto thee, or if thou know 
him not, then thou shalt bring it unto thine own 
house, and it shall be with thee until thy brother seek 
after it, and thou shalt restore it to him again. In 
like manner shalt thou do with his ass ; and so shalt 
thou do with his raiment ; and with all lost things of 
thy brother's which he hath lost, and thou hast found, 
shalt thou do likewise : thou mayest not hide thyself. 

" Thou shalt not see thy brother's ass or his ox 
fall down by the way, and hide thyself from them ; 
thou shalt surely help him to lift them up again. 

" The woman shall not wear that which per- 
taineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a 
woman's garment ; for all that do so are abomination 
unto the Lord thy Grod. 

"When thou buildest a new house, then thou 



324 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

shalt make a "battlement for thy roof, that thou 
hring not blood upon thy house, if any man fall from 
thence. 

" No man shall take the upper or the nether 
mill-stone to pledge ; for he taketh a man's life to 
pledge. 

"When a man hath taken a new wife, he shall 
not go out to war, neither shall he be charged with 
any business ; but he shall be free at home one year, 
and shall cheer up his wife which he hath taken. 

"And it shall be, if the wicked man be worthy to 
be beaten, that the judge shall cause him to lie down 
and to be beaten before his face, according to his fault, 
by a certain number. Forty stripes he may give him, 
and not exceed ; lest if he should exceed, and beat 
him above these with many stripes, then thy brother 
should seem vile unto thee. 

" Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth 
out the corn. 

" Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights, 
a great and a small ; thou shalt not have in thy house 
divers measures, a great and a small ; but thou shalt 
have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just 
measure shalt thou have ; that thy days may be 
lengthened in the land which the Lord thy God 
giveth thee. For all that do such things, and all 
that do unrighteously, are an abomination unto the 
Lord thy Grod. 

" Thou shalt not oppress a hired servant that is 
poor and needy, whether he be of thy brethren, or of 
thy strangers, that are in thy land within thy gates : 
at his day, thou shalt give him his hire, neither shall 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 325 

the sun go down upon it, for he is poor, and setteth 
his heart upon it ; lest he cry against thee unto the 
Lord, and it be sin unto thee. The fathers shall not 
be put to death for the children, neither shall the 
children be put to death for the fathers ; every man 
shall be put to death for his own sin. 

" Thou shalt not pervert the judgment of the 
stranger, nor of the fatherless, nor take the widow's 
raiment to pledge ; but thou shalt remember that 
thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the 
Lord thy Grod redeemed thee thence : therefore I 
command thee to do this thing. 

"When thou cuttest down thy harvest in thy 
field, and hast forgot a sheaf in the field, thou shalt 
not go again to fetch it : it shall be for the stranger, 
for the fatherless, and for the widow ; that the Lord 
thy God may bless thee in all the work of thy hands. 
"When thou beatest thine olive-tree, thou shalt not go 
over the boughs again ; it shall be for the stranger, 
for the fatherless, and for the widow. When thou 
gatherest the grapes of thy vineyard, thou shalt not 
glean it afterward ; it shall be for the stranger, for 
the fatherless, and for the widow. And thou shalt 
remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of 
Egypt." Deut., chap. 15, 20, 22, 24, 25. 

After reading these and similar verses, so far from 
seeing any thing there calculated to make me believe 
that the people thus governed must be the lowest and 
the vilest on earth, I could say in truth, that I never 
had met in any penal code any thing so affecting, and 
so beautiful ; so striking, and so touchingly compas- 
sionate. I knew from incontrovertible evidence that 



326 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

this law was written many centuries before any other 
book now in the world was written, and yet could 
see that we should not be injured were we to copy 
now from this heavenly spirit of mercy and of justice, 
so wisely blended. These were the reasons why it 
weakened rather than strengthened the cause of un- 
belief, if I read in a book, or if I heard in conversa- 
sation, expressions of contempt or aversion uttered 
towards an ancient people and their law, where I was 
constrained to remember there was so much to ad- 
mire. There was another kindred incident which 
may well find a place here. It is the kind of false 
system from which I was saved, by the circumstance 
of being compelled to hear the Bible read morning 
and evening, every day when young. 

But this must be reserved for another chapter. 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 327 



CHAPTER LXII. 

INFLUENCE OF AN EARLY ACQUAINTANCE WITH THE 
BIBLE. 

I sometimes fell into company with those who felt 
somewhat perplexed, when they attempted to account 
for the way in which the Israelites first received the 
law of Moses. This is the nature of their difficulty : 
if we make ourselves somewhat acquainted with 
ancient history, and find a people three thousand 
years, or two thousand years since, living in the land 
which we now call Palestine, under a written law, 
and a law which may at least be called a singular 
code, the law which we call the law of Moses, it is 
very natural that we should inquire how they came 
by it, when did they receive it, or from whom did 
they obtain it. We know that it either came from 
heaven, or it did not ; that its history in the Bible is 
either true or false. We can well enough understand 
that either Moses wrote the law, as they thought he 
did when they thus lived in Jerusalem, and placed it 
over them, or some one else wrote it and they received 
it in some other way. If we endeavor to conjecture 
that some one, not in the time of Moses, had ap- 
proached the people with a book purporting to con- 
tain the law of Moses, telling them of the journeys 
and sufferings of their fathers, and speaking of the 
requirements of heaven and of the wonders their 
fathers had seen, and had persuaded them to obey 



328 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

that sacred book, when they had not heard of it be- 
fore, when they never had heard their fathers speak 
of that journey, or of those marvels, we must meet 
with some things to perplex us. That law desig- 
nated their landmarks, was the title to every man's 
field, regulated all his possessions and all his pur- 
suits. It would be difficult to make children believe 
their fathers had reverenced it, if they had not heard 
of it; or to delude a nation concerning statutes which 
not only formed their courts and then guided them, 
but designated the limits of the vineyards, and con- 
tained the family register, from which every legal 
title to all earthly possessions lineally descended to 
those then holding them. Should we wish to believe 
that Moses, being a man of great powers, deluded the 
people, and made them believe they saw marvels when 
they did not, etc., w^e do not find our path a smooth 
one. It is true, that thousands of our race are igno- 
rant, superstitious, and readily deluded in many 
things. "We can point to almost any number of in- 
stances, where men were made to receive the weakest 
falsehood for truth. But there are some cases of de- 
ception we cannot point to. There never was an in- 
stance where a nation of people were made to believe 
that they passed forty years in a sandy desert, if they 
did not ; or that their bread fell every night from the 
clouds, if it did not ; or that they needed no new 
clothes, if they did need them ; or that they walked 
through a river without touching water, if they did 
not. Considerations of this kind and in great num- 
ber caused some of the difficulties I have stated in 
the way of those who wished to account for the recep- 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 329 

tion of their law by the Israelites. The more think- 
ing and logical infidels knew that Christianity would 
be received by most of those who granted that the 
children of Israel stood at the foot of the smoking 
mountain, and heard the earth-shaking voice of God 
pronounce their law. They wished to get clear of 
this acknowledgment — of even granting the correct- 
ness of the history connected with this law; although 
they knew that later generations of Jews reverenced 
commemorative feasts, observances, and annual con- 
vocations, all pointing back to these occurrences. The 
question would then again be returning upon them, 
"When did the nation begin to love these ceremonies, 
obey this law — the title-deed of their habitations — 
and worship according to its dictates ? To account 
for the way in which they were prevailed on, in any 
age, to receive this book, and then believe, and then 
obey it, some would take one course and some an- 
other. The same individual was known sometimes 
to change his theory. I have repeatedly stated that 
a recollection of the early reading of Moses, kept me 
from receiving many plans which seemed to content 
some. I now give the particulars. 

If I chanced to be present when some one satis- 
fied an approving circle, by stating that Moses was an 
artful and an accomplished politician- — had written 
the law, and then flattered the people into a willing- 
ness to receive it as their national code, I was met by 
what I had learned in early life. If telling people of 
their faults, and nothing but their faults, amounts to 
flattery, it is not of that kind which pleases those now 
alive, or even the author of the discovery we are look- 



330 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

ins: at. The Jews were told of their cowardice at the 
Red sea. Of their ignorance, stupidity, stiff-necked 
rebellion, avarice, sensuality, and ingratitude, I re- 
membered they were told again and again. These 
things were repeated page after page ; but of any 
excellence belonging to them, I knew Moses had never 
made the first expression. Indeed, he told of his own 
sinful weakness excluding him from the promised 
land. Nay, further than all this, I was reminded by 
such evasions, that of all the nations on earth this 
was the only exception ; of all the people I had ever 
read about, this was the only instance where their 
rulers did not praise them. The generals of antiquity, 
when their soldiers gained a battle, lauded them with 
long repeated and unrestrained applause. Cities at 
home rung with acclamations ; and songs were sung 
in honor of their martial deeds, which were repeated 
through years of exultation. Napoleon of France and 
other accomplished leaders would call their troops 
before them, after a season of activity, and tell them 
of their noble daring, their invincible courage, their 
magnanimous resolves, and of the indescribable lustre 
of their glorious deeds. All this has been as common 
with man as his use of the spring or the well when 
thirsty, except in one case. The nation of Israel 
were told they did nothing, and God did all. They 
fought through conflict after conflict, and were suc- 
cessful. It wcs the duty and the custom of the leader 
to tell them, that if it had been left to them, they 
would have been defeated; that their strength was 
weakness. That God fought for them, and that of 
themselves they were worthless, was the doctrine 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 331 

registered in the book of their laws, the narrative of 
their marches, and the history of their victories. 
They were told it in their public assemblies, and it 
was repeated in the private circle. 

I remembered the natural wishes of the human 
heart. I remembered of other nations how much 
they seemed pleased when their historians made out 
their descent from some great hero, or from Jupiter, 
or some other heathen deity. This was so common, 
and was practised so long, and so universally almost, 
that we might well observe the conduct of Moses on 
this point. The shepherds he names as their ances- 
tors, had their faults, blots, crimes, or blemishes 
noted down so plainly and so unsparingly, that he 
either did not intend to foster their national vanity, 
or he was very deficient in the talent of flattery. In- 
stead of making out their descent from ancient gods, 
he gives it from men, and weak, sinful men. This 
history alone is not all. Each man in the nation 
was commanded to appear in public, with a basket 
of fruit, on a convenient day, and standing up to pro- 
nounce aloud, not, "I am descended from Jupiter;"' 
or, " Magnificent conquerors were my ancestors;" 
but, "A Syrian ready to perish was my father." 

Indeed, I have often thought that it was not 
strange that the people felt reluctant to receive a 
history which told more of defects than virtues. The 
theory that the nation was flattered into the recep- 
tion of the law, or loved the Old Testament because 
it praised them, was not likely to last long at any 
given time or place. Others must be invented in the 
stead of it. The supposition that they received the 



332 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

law as other people receive their laws, hoping for ad- 
vantage, for worldly profit, etc., never weighed more 
than the first-mentioned, with those who have read 
or heard the books of Moses. Nay, I have often won- 
dered that any thing ever did prevail on them to re- 
ceive it at any time. Reader, I need not tell you again 
of that which you already know. I need not prove 
the truths, that men are fond of worldly prosperity ; 
that they love money ; that they delight to see their 
possessions increase. You know that nothing excites 
a community more speedily or more effectually than 
that which threatens their property. Men turn away 
from nothing with more determined abhorrence, than 
from a regulation which would seem to promise them 
toil without gain, and labor without profit. 

Any one, first looking at the unwillingness of 
communities to be heavily taxed, might exclaim with 
sincere astonishment, "Is it possible that this people 
ever submitted to a law which called for a tenth of 
their annual income more than once V- The answer 
is, that the law of Moses called for tithing more than 
once for different purposes ; and this was not all. If 
we compute the offerings and sacrifices, gifts and 
multiplied requirements, we find that it must have 
reached from one-fourth to perhaps one-half of the 
whole income. After this, if we observe that they 
were not allowed to sow every seventh year, but 
were to leave the natural produce of their land for 
the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow; that 
they were not allowed to work every seventh day; 
that, during long feasts, they were not allowed to 
work ; that, during convocation after convocation, 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 333 

they were to do no servile work ; we begin to feel 
as though these people at the end of the year, will 
surely have nothing to live on, aside from giving 
away, or burning upon altars. If we then hear them 
charged not to reap the corners of their fields, but to 
leave them for the stranger, the fatherless, and the 
widow ; not to go back after the forgotten sheaf ; not 
to strike the olive-limb twice ; not to glean the vine- 
yard ; not to eat of the orchard for four years after it 
begins to bear, etc., we are ready to exclaim, unless 
we trust in the interference of Heaven, surely if ever 
a people were to work and have nothing, to toil and 
to give it all away, here is the instance. I have often 
wondered that all the promises or threatenings they 
heard, that all the wonders they saw or the plagues 
which swept them off by thousands, that all the de- 
nunciations of Moses or the thunders of Sinai ever 
made a nation agree to receive a code of rules which 
called for seemingly almost all the property they could 
possibly acquire. It called for no licentious revels ; 
it permitted no unholy indulgences ; and it enjoined 
the observance of that which ease-loving and sensual 
man naturally hates. They did not wish to receive 
it ; and they long sought to escape from its govern- 
ment ; but they had a Grod to contend with. 

Postscript. I have since observed, with some 
surprise and interest, how the principle that God's 
people are not to be praised, has been exhibited all 
through every part of the Old and New Testament. 
The apostles loved the Saviour. The men who wrote 
his history and had been with him so intimately and 
so long, never speak of his lofty look, his command- 



334 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

ing gesture, or utter any expression of praise, such 
as other writers do concerning the objects of their 
admiration or the principal personage of their narra- 
tives. Peter loved and reverenced, and quoted from 
the holy Scriptures ; yet these were the Scriptures 
which were to tell to all future generations his pride 
and his self-conceit, his treachery and his lies. After 
Peter had wept over his cowardice, and had preached 
for many years, confessing his sins, and enduring per- 
secution, he fell again into sin, and acted very unbe- 
comingly for a leader in the church. Paul, in writ- 
ing to the churches, told plainly of it, and said that 
he had to withstand Peter to the face. How will the 
grey-headed bishop bear this, when he shall write to 
the churches ? He did write, and he spoke of the 
epistles of his " beloved brother Paul," wdiich some 
wrested, as they did " also the other scriptures, to 
their own destruction." No writer in that book ever 
speaks of the bravery, or the amiableness, or the 
sagacity, or the hardihood of others. It is the only 
volume on earth whose manner is relation of naked 
fact. This singular feature in the sacred Scriptures 
runs through the volume ; but we often read without 
remarking it. I will, before leaving the subject, refer 
to one or two other illustrations. 

David, king of Israel, had fought and conquered 
and triumphed so often and so long, had received 
wealth and ease and greatness so continually, that 
when reading of his falling into sin, the man of sense 
and candor is only surprised that it did not happen 
sooner. History informs us that it has been common 
with potentates whose nod has long been law, to de- 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 335 

stroy those who tell them faithfully of their crimes. 
The prophet came into David's presence, and pic- 
tured the sin in its native and abominable colors. 
The king did not apply it to himself. He had, like 
all other sinners, excused and palliated his own con- 
duct, until it seemed very passable in his own eyes. 
After the prophet had pictured the deformity of the 
sin, he stood up before the monarch, and faithfully 
said to him, " Thou art the man." The king bowed 
his head, confessed his guilt, and asked the prophet 
to pray for him. 

Instead of urging many excuses, or holding up 
numerous palliatives, or denying and hiding his 
crime, he wept and humbled himself, great and lofty 
as was his throne, bright and extensive as was the 
sceptre of his authority. The songs which the king 
made were sung in public by many voices. In the 
presence of the court, and before the assembled priests, 
the monarch knew that collected Jerusalem would 
sing his verses ; nay, that his words would confess 
his guilt, and bring his crime to the notice of other 
generations, and hold up his sin before distant as- 
semblies to the latest days. And what were those 
words? " Have mercy on me, God, according to 
thy loving kindness : according to the multitude of 
thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash 
me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me 
from my sin. Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, 
God, thou God of my salvation." 

The man who has been an observer of his fellow- 
man while looking down the page of history, remem- 
bers something of the disposition common to those 



33G CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

who have by their exploits in battle become idols of 
the people. 

The man who has intellect enough to compare, 
and industry enough to observe, can see that this 
penitential confession of Israel's king is not in the 
character of an unconverted man. He can see that 
there is as much difference between the conduct of a 
converted and an unconverted potentate, as there is 
between gold and charcoal, between morning and 
midnight. I remember when all these striking fea- 
tures of this strange book were unseen by me. The 
stupor of ignorance both veiled my eyes and envel- 
oped my affections. 

Another instance. The difference between a 
converted and an unconverted father ; or rather, the 
difference between a father moved by inspiration, 
and one speaking from his own innate feeling. 

Jacob had twelve sons. A youthful prince treated 
their sister amiss, but loved, married, and was kind 
to her. Her haughty brothers might have forgiven 
his sin, after he had confessed and repented of it. 
They professed forgiveness, but with two of them it 
was only pretence. They acted the hypocrite until 
they found the auspicious moment, and then killed 
the young man and all his household, except their 
sister. Jacob removed, and was not involved in war 
in consequence of this transaction ; but he reproved 
his sons, and no doubt felt at the time as a pious 
father should feel. Many fathers might have been 
pleased by the sheep and oxen gathered in this con- 
test, their pride might have been gratified at the re- 
vengeful victory of their strong and impetuous sons ; 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 337 

"but it was not so with Jacob. He forgave his chil- 
dren, however, and lived with them in peace for very- 
many years. At last the grey-headed man coming 
to die, speaks to his sons as they stand around his 
dying couch. He tells his sons of their descendants, 
of the comparative strength, success, and number of 
their tribes. His prophecies concerning them reached 
down more than nineteen hundred years. It is com- 
mon with fathers, if they have been at variance with 
their children, to forgive them on a dying-bed. The 
hour of their departure is not the time to reprove and 
to call up faults that are passed ; but Jacob, under 
the influence of inspiration, must utter the truth, 
however his parental tenderness might incline him to 
kind expressions. He speaks of his first-born son 
Reuben, tells him of his sins, and tells him that he 
never shall excel. The tribe of Reuben never did. 
The old man had, like other fathers, loved his first- 
born son, had forgiven him his faults, but he was tell- 
ing him the purposes of heaven in this case. See 
Genesis, chap. 49. 

The dying patriarch speaks joyously of many of 
his sons, tells of their particular location in the prom- 
ised land, and in some instances, their particular his- 
tory in a very interesting manner. I\ T o doubt in the 
bosom of this kind, aged father there was something 
which would have pleased him, could he have spoken 
cheeringly of Simeon and Levi, two of his beloved 
sons who stood in the weeping circle. What were 
his words in their case ? 

" Simeon and Levi are brethren ; instruments of 
cruelty are in their habitations. my soul, come 

Cause and Cure. J O 



338 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

not thou into their secret ; unto their assembly, mine 
honor, be not thou united ; for in their anger they 
slew a man, and in their self-will they digged down 
a wall. Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce ; and 
their wrath, for it was cruel. I will divide them in 
Jacob, and scatter them in Israel." 

On reading this chapter of G-enesis, I remembered 
enough of history to see that the prophecy was true 
concerning Judah, and concerning Joseph — of whom 
there were two tribes — and others ; but when Simeon, 
Levi, and Reuben, were mentioned, I saw clearly that 
the natural feelings of a mortal father were not speak- 
ing. The time was when I could read such a chap- 
ter and see no beauty, no interesting prediction, no 
lovely feature there. Ten thousand excellences of 
the inspired volume are too lofty to be seen by the 
earth-gazing eye of drowsy mortals. 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 339 

CHAPTER LXIII. 

COMMEMORATIVE INSTITUTIONS. 

If any one in my hearing, wishing to cast re- 
proach on the name of Moses, or to discredit the nar- 
rative written by him, spoke of the lawgiver as covet- 
ous, desirous of fame, seeking after aggrandizement, 
exultation, and honors, like other ambitious men, I 
could not rest satisfied with his reasoning. I knew 
that ambitious fathers placed their children in posts 
of honor if they could, and aimed to have their author- 
ity descend to their own families. I remembered, that 
much influence as Moses had with the nation, his 
family descended to or remained in complete obscu- 
rity. His sons were no more noticed than the sons 
of the poorest man in the camp. 

A certain ancient traveller, in writing back to 
Rome, said that the Egyptians told him of the Red 
sea having ill former days, at a given place, ebbed 
until the bottom was left dry, and that an army was 
drowned there. This reminded me that the people 
of Egypt for a long time remembered certain occur- 
rences which are related by the Jewish lawgiver. 
Nay, it is a matter of common history, that the Egyp- 
tians were in the habit for thousands of years, even 
down to modern times, of rising at midnight on- a 
certain day of the year, lighting candles, and going 
about the house weeping and groaning until morn- 
ing. It seems to us as though this must have been 



340 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

a ceremony commemorative of that night, that terri- 
ble night, when there was one dead in every house. 
Noting these facts, and remembering the disposition 
there is in the bosom of man to commemorate strik- 
ing events, weakened, very much weakened, the 
theories of all my companions in infidelity, if ever I 
heard them attempt to account for the origin or com- 
mencement of the passover, or other Jewish rites and 
feasts. 

I knew that the event which once took place in 
our national hall on the fourth of July, was as per- 
manently recorded in the annual observance of that 
day, as on paper. Anniversaries year after year tell 
over and over again the same fact of history, the 
same events which gave rise to their observance, for 
any number of centuries. Recalling the fact to every 
one's remembrance every twelve months, makes the 
child inquire about it, and the parents have their rec- 
ollections refreshed if it be ever necessary. 

If all our books were burned, and if we were to 
have no more written history of our revolution, the 
declaration of our independence might be long pre- 
served by the celebration of the day on which it took 
place. The way in which the fourth day of July is 
observed, is m itself a history of an occurrence be- 
longing to the year 1776. It is a register of that 
transaction which is read every year, and which would 
tell future generations about it, if we had no books. 
But although important events are kept alive by some 
annual commemoration, and in every nation some 
things have been thus correctly preserved through 
many centuries, still, a national record added to these 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 341 

returning festivals lias doubled the strength of their 
perpetuity. If England has remembered certain vic- 
tories of distant days by yearly rejoicings, these facts 
are handed down with more correctness because they 
have historians of respectability, and because they 
are a reading people. If the declaration of our inde- 
pendence is kept fresh before us by annual celebra- 
tions, still, the accurate circumstantials of the event 
are preserved more certainly by the addition of his- 
toric records. In other words, where history and an- 
nual observances unite, we have the strongest chain 
of testimony which ever reaches from age to age. 
Many of our people who are very young, or who can- 
not read, have their minds informed by hearing the 
declaration of our independence read, while in th8 
midst of the large assembly. 

If our fathers had all believed that (rod had 
ordered the writing of that paper in its present form, 
or if he had really appeared to them and had spoken 
a part of it in their hearing, or if the executive of 
our nation at his bidding had commanded that every 
year these things should be celebrated, and that the 
whole history should be read aloud in the hearing of 
the assembly, it would, no doubt, have added to the 
clearness and to the certainty of our recollections ; 
but just as they stand, our history and our anniver- 
saries will save us from any material mistake con- 
cerning the facts of '76, as long, no doubt, as we 
remain together as a people. 

The Egyptians, without written history, seemed 
long to remember the night when the angel did not 
pass over their houses, and when they arose at mid- 



342 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

night, and wept until morning. The Israelites oh- 
served the night in a way that was to remind them 
that the angel did pass over their houses, and did not 
destroy their first-born ; also that they were in readi- 
ness to march immediately and to depart from Egypt. 

But in addition to this annual feast, a history of 
all the circumstances was written, as they believed 
at the command of the Grod whose presence was vis- 
ible in the cloudy pillar ; and they were ordered to 
have it read, for the sake of the unlearned, in the 
hearing of all the people, without omission and with- 
out neglect. 

I could see that during any one year, it would be 
a difficult matter to persuade a nation into a false- 
hood connected with the celebration of the preceding 
year ; and the same difficulty belonged to the year 
before this, and the year before that again, until we 
reached the origin of the feast, or the event which gave 
rise to the celebration. I could not have wished to 
be in the condition of one whose task it was to per- 
suade himself that our fathers believed they had, at 
a given time, declared themselves independent, when 
they really had not. I could not wish to be under 
the necessity of fixing upon the year when this na- 
tional belief, joyous without foundation, had its rise. 
Political revolutions are plain occurrences. Opinions, 
false, universal, and triumphant, are not commonly 
found to exist, concerning the change of empires. 
The removal of a nation from its residence to its dis- 
tant habitation, an entire nation, is a very plain trans- 
action to the eyes of those who are there, and to their 
children for many years. When my companions at- 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 343 

tempted to account for the origin of the passover and 
other Jewish observances, in a way differing from 
their own history of these feasts, or to suppose that 
the nation thought their fathers had passed through 
the sea and through the desert, when it was not so, 
I could see that they had a task as difficult and as 
toilsome as it would be quietly to believe the Israel- 
itish records. 

There were impediments in the road, which few 
would surmount unless they had a strong natural 
inclination to walk in the path of infidelity. 



344 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

CHAPTER LX1V. 

THE FIFTY-THIRD OF ISAIAH. 

I remembered that I had heard it stated, or had 
read, that the famous profligate the Earl of Rochester 
was much surprised after reading the fifty-third chap- 
ter of Isaiah. This wicked man was not destitute of 
education, and he knew that if the book of Isaiah had 
been no older than the Greek translation of it made 
for the Alexandrian library, still, it had been read 
two hundred years before the birth of the Saviour; 
and this was as striking as though it had been a thou- 
sand. It was said that this earl avowed, in pale aston- 
ishment, that the twelve verses contained an accurate 
account of the life, reception, character, trial, manner 
of trial, death, manner of death, resurrection, etc., of 
the crucified Saviour. He thought it as plain as the 
history of him given in Matthew. My curiosity was 
excited. I wished to judge for myself, and I opened 
the book and read, " Who hath believed our report; 
and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed ?" 

I thought that if this was a complaint of the 
prophets that so few of our race had listened to their 
message, or received their doctrines, it was perhaps 
not destitute of accuracy thus far. 

I read again, " He shall grow up before him as a 
tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground." 

I asked a minister what he understood by this. 
He replied, that plants that grow from a dry soil are 
tender, and that they require more watering, and 
more the watchful care of the gardener, than others. 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 345 

He said that he had read of the Redeemer, that he was 
waited upon by angels, that he was strengthened, 
and that he supposed the Saviour had as much the 
care of his heavenly Father as the attentive husband- 
man ever bestows upon the tenderest plant. I could 
not controvert his opinion, but I read on without decid- 
ing as yet, in my own mind, on its correctness. 

" He hath no form nor comeliness ; and when we 
shall see him, there is no beauty that we should 
desire him." 

I did not find this very hard to understand, for I 
had known before that the Jews, having expected a 
splendid prince for their Messiah, one who would make 
them very wealthy and very powerful, did not see 
much beauty in the poverty of the reputed son of 
Joseph of Nazareth. Neither did the next verses 
require any interpreter. 

" He is despised and rejected of men; a man of 
sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it 
were our faces from him; he was despised, and we 
esteemed him not. 

" Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our 
sorrows ; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of 
God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our 
transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities ; the 
chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with 
his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone 
astray ; we have turned every one to his own way ; 
and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.'" 

I could see that the doctrine of substitution, 
which I had heard preached all my life, was surely 
in these verses ; but I was not so much surprised as 
15* 



346 CAUSE AND CUEE OF INFIDELITY. 

I have since been, to see how often it is repeated and 
varied in mode of expression in this short chapter. 
The next two verses began to awaken my attention. 

" He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he 
opened not his mouth : he is brought as a lamb to 
the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is 
dumb, so he opened not his mouth. He was taken 
from prison and from judgment ; and who shall de- 
clare his generation ? for he was cut off out of the 
land of the living ; for the transgression of my people 
was he stricken." 

I remembered his singular silence before Pilate, 
but this did not seem to be the only item mentioned 
concerning his trial. Criminals usually when taken 
into custody, are confined in the jail until the sitting 
of the court, which is often not sooner than some 
weeks or months. If they are tried and condemned, 
they are thrown again into prison, and after a time 
executed. I had heard that the word prison, in many 
languages, often meant no more than custody ; there* 
fore, when I read, " He was taken from prison and 
from judgment," I remembered that Christ was taken 
into custody, and hurried directly before the judg- 
ment-seat, his trial hurried on by shouts of impa- 
tience, and as soon as condemned he was taken from 
judgment immediately to execution. These circum- 
stantial details began to strike me with much interest, 
which was not diminished by the succeeding verse. 

"And he' made his grave with the wicked, and 
with the rich in his death ; because he had done no 
violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth." 

It was plain enough that he lay in the tomb of 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 347 

the rich man of Arimathea, while the wicked soldiers 
surrounded it ; "but one who understood the Hebrew, 
informed me that the original text stated more directly 
what is related in the New Testament, namely, that 
they designed his grave with the wicked, but God 
ordered it otherwise, because he had done no violence : 
because he was not a malefactor, he was not permit- 
ted to be buried with malefactors, where his enemies 
certainly were about to bury him, if no one had asked 
Pilate for his body. 

" Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him ; he hath 

put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an 

offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong 

his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper 

tsn his hand." 

I had read just before, that he was to be cut off 
out of the land of the living, and buried ; of course, 
when I found it declared that his days were yet to be 
prolonged, I was necessarily reminded of his resur- 
rection. I could see without assistance from any 
commentary, that with his resurrection announced in 
this verse, w T as also connected the prosperity of his 
cause. In the Bible, and by the church in every age, 
the converted, or those born again, are and have been 
called the children of God. I was aware of this, and 
could understand, of course, that if he saw his seed 
in a time of prosperity, it must be after his leaving 
the earth, for while here he was the man of sorrows. 

" He shall see of the travail of his soul, and- shall 
be satisfied : by his knowledge shall my righteous ser- 
vant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. 
Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, 



348 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

and he shall divide the spoil with the strong ; because 
he hath poured out his soul unto death : and he was 
numbered, with the transgressors ; and he bare the sin 
of many, and made intercession for the transgressors." 

The oriental expressions of having a portion with 
the great, and dividing the spoil with the strong, I 
knew in other eastern books referred to prosperity. I 
remembered, that whether he merited it or not, the 
name of Christ had extended over a considerable part 
of our race, and that his friends believed his sceptre 
would reach still wider. I did not know but that his 
portion was to be truly great. 

The doctrine of vicarious sufferings is reiterated 
in these last two verses. That he was to be num- 
bered with actual transgressors is declared — one was 
crucified on his right hand, and the other on his left. 

That he was to pray for them is announced ; and 
I now see that it is very affecting to think of his 
saying, while the weight of his body was resting on 
metallic spikes, " Father, forgive them ; they know 
not what they do." 

On closing the volume I could not but confess that 
the circumstantials of life and death, trial and burial, 
resurrection and results, were presented in singular 
variety. If I had asked myself why I had read this 
so often before without observing it, the truthful an- 
swer must have been somewhat humiliating. In con- 
sequence of the long indulgence of sin, sensuality, and 
pride, it is true that ignorance and sluggish inatten- 
tion will take possession of the soul of man. Respect- 
ing heaven's pure religion, the intellectual operations 
of the wisest become utterly besotted. 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 349 



CHAPTER LXV. 



A PROPHECY OF DANIEL. 



Teie following passage of Scripture I never did 
read with profit until aided by a commentator. The 
meaning is not so hidden, it is not so obscure as to 
baffle the research of the unlearned, but it required, 
the remarks of others to awaken towards it my scru- 
tinizing regard. 

"And while I was speaking, and praying, and 
confessing my sin, and the sin of my people Israel, 
and presenting my supplication before the Lord my 
God for the holy mountain of my God ; yea, while I 
%as speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom 
I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused, 
to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the even- 
ing oblation. And he informed me, and talked with 
me, and said, Daniel, I am now come forth to give 
thee skill and understanding:. At the besrinninsr of 
thy supplications the commandment came forth, and 
I am come to show thee ; for thou art greatly be- 
loved : therefore understand the matter, and consider 
the vision. Seventy weeks are determined upon thy 
people and upon thy holy city, to finish the trans- 
gression, and to make an end of sins, and to make 
reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting 
righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, 
and to anoint the Most Holy. Know therefore and 
understand, that from the going forth of the com- 
mandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the 



350 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

Messiah the Prince, shall be seven weeks, and three- 
score and two weeks ; the street shall be built again, 
and the wall, even in troublous times. And after 
threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, 
but not for himself: and the people of the prince that 
shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; 
and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto 
the end of the war desolations are determined. And 
he shall confirm the covenant with many for one 
week ; and in the midst of the week he shall cause 
the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the 
overspreading of abominations, he shall make it deso- 
late, even until the consummation, and that deter- 
mined shall be poured upon the desolate." Daniel 
9 : 20-27. 

I desire to place before the reader a few facts of 
which I was informed by the commentary of Scott, 
and of others which I had known and laid aside ; but 
they were brought to my recollection in such a way 
that I must necessarily apply them. After travelling 
speedily over this ground, I shall endeavor to draw 
the necessary inference. 

The Israelites, in reckoning their time, made use 
of two kinds of weeks, very different in duration, but 
the same in parts, commencement, and termination. 
They used the week so well known with us, seven 
days in extent, and commencing with a Sabbath of 
one day, or twenty-four hours. Their other week, 
which we have ceased to use, was seven years in 
extent, and commenced with a Sabbath of one year's 
duration. Of course each day of this week was one 
year. The Israelite who would say it was three 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 351 

weeks until jubilee, meant twenty-one years. That 
a week was seven years in length, did not seem 
strange to him, as it does to those who have long 
ceased to compute time in this way. The heathen 
took up the Jewish mode, and reckoned by that 
week. A celebrated author, in writing his life, and 
stating that he had passed his eleventh week, did not 
pause to make any explanation. He seemed to feel 
that the pagan world at that time were so familiar 
with the week of years, that all his readers would 
know he was seventy-seven years of age. The people 
of Daniel, and perhaps all the surrounding nations, 
knew well that these seventy weeks named by the 
angel, reached across four hundred and ninety years ; 
and they were looking for the appearance of a great 
Saviour the year in which Christ was born, but they 
did not know him when he appeared not clothed with 
pomp. 

The people of Israel were in captivity; their 
homes were naked and despoiled ; and if they ever 
did return to build their city, it must be by edict 
from the potentate holding them in subjection. After 
the vision of the prophet, those who were watching 
for the redemption of the world, would also watch 
and listen for a command from some of Persia's 
monarchs to restore and to build Jerusalem; and 
from the date of this command, would note the com- 
mencement of the seventy weeks. There were two 
commands to this effect : ordering, and then order- 
ing again, the restoration of Jerusalem. One of these 
decrees was obtained in the seventh, and the other in 
the twentieth year of Artaxerxes. 



352 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

Sir Isaac Newton justly observes, that l J the dis- 
persed Jews became a people and a city, when they 
returned into a body politic ; and that was in the 
seventh year of Artaxerxes Longimanus." Maclaurin. 
The seventy weeks accomplish the declarations of 
Heaven, if commenced immediately after one of these 
commandments, and if weeks of solar years are used; 
while from the other, if severity weeks of lunar years 
are counted, the termination is the same. This as- 
tronomical accommodation awakens the surprise of 
many. That the walls and streets of Jerusalem were 
nearly fifty years in building, and that the times were 
so troublous that the workmen labored with a sword 
in one hand, and a building implement in the other, 
I had read elsewhere, but had never applied it so as 
to note the accuracy of the prophet, until reminded 
of the prediction and the fulfilment by the commen- 
tary. 

Whoever reads Ezra and Nehemiah, may feel that 
the difficulties connected with Jerusalem's restora- 
tion were indeed sufficiently pressing to merit the 
language " troublous times." That expression will 
never again stand before him as covered with obscu- 
rity. Scott points us to the fact, that the term of 
seventy weeks in the text is divided into three several 
portions. These three different periods are of a very 
unequal length, but when added together make up 
the seventy. They are a term of seven weeks, and 
of sixty-two weeks, and of one week. The seven 
weeks' term extends across the time of building, which 
was so dangerous and so toilsome. This lasted forty- 
nine years ; each one of the seven weeks being seven 



THE AUTHOE/S RESCUE. 353 

years, according to our mode of reckoning. The work- 
men were beset by their enemies in such a manner, 
that they labored while clothed in armor. The sixty- 
two weeks seem to extend from this time, until the 
Most Holy was anointed on the bank of Jordan. Oil 
had been used to anoint other high-priests ; but to 
anoint the great High-priest, that which the oil sig- 
nified, the Holy Spirit, was seen to descend and rest 
upon him. After his baptism, the Saviour travelled 
and preached, healed and instructed, for three years 
and six months, just the half of a week, before he 
was crucified. He rose from the dead, ascended, and 
told his followers to go and tender the gospel in his 
name to the earth, but to begin at Jerusalem. They 
did so, and during another half week, thousands on 
thousands accepted, and with them the covenant was 
confirmed, before the preachers were driven from Ju- 
dea to offer it to the Gentiles. This last term of one 
week is divided into two parts. It was in the middle 
of it that the great sacrifice was offered, which anni- 
hilated the utility of all other sacrifices. It was in 
the middle of the last week that the oblation was 
poured out, which instantly checked the efficacy of 
all other oblations. We are told, that when Messiah 
should be cut off, it would not be for himself. This 
points us to the atonement — to the vicarious suffer- 
ings which, as we have noticed, were shown so fully 
to Isaiah, and which he repeated with such strange 
variety of words. A covenant is an agreement be- 
tween two parties. When one offers and the other 
refuses, a covenant is not confirmed. When both 
agree, it is confirmed or closed. God's part of the 



354 CAUSE AND CUHE OF INFIDELITY. 

agreement which lie offers to make, is, that lie will 
take the one who has sinned as his child, place the 
everlasting righteousness brought into view by the 
Most Holy during the last one of the seventy weeks 
to the mail's account, as though it belonged to him, 
protect, guide, and finally save. Reader, he is serious, 
and will confirm such a contract with you, if you 
wish it. Man's part of the covenant is, that he will 
accept the gift of this righteousness, confessing he 
did not make it himself; cease opposition to his 
Maker ; inquire after all his precepts, and obey them. 
During the three years and a half before the death of 
Christ, he, with his apostles, confirmed this covenant 
with many of Daniel's nation ; and his apostles, after 
he left them, did the same for half a week in his 
name. After this, obstinacy prevailed ; and it was 
not very long before the " people of the prince," that 
was foretold when Daniel lived, the Romans, came 
and did destroy " the city and the sanctuary." If 
any should inquire what is meant by the sentence, 
" The end thereof shall be with a flood," I would 
answer, Read a full account of the siege and destruc- 
tion of Jerusalem ; and if the expression is not fully 
explained, I am unable to make it plainer. Flavius 
Josephus was a spectator of that flood. He wrote, 
and his books may be read. As it regards the deso- 
lations which were to overwhelm the nation which 
cut off the Messiah, we are only told that they should 
roll on until the consummation ; how lonsr before the 
consummation, this chapter does not tell, (rod's 
people have seen them pouring out, and have looked 
on with wonder for eighteen hundred years, asking, 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 355 

"Will this torrent never cease to beat upon the deso- 
late ?" The answer is, Not before the consummation. 
But we have reason to believe this now approaches 
so near that we may begin to discern it dimly. 

Respecting the measurement of these three divis- 
ions of weeks, it is true that the quibbler may cavil 
and speak zealously against the prophecy; and so he 
can quibble and speak plausible falsehood concerning 
the proper location of any star in the heavens. I 
shall then go on at once to the inference promised, 
which is brief, and may be speedily drawn. 

Application. I had read heathen poets, and had 
applauded them. I had read ancient orators, and 
had admired them. I had watched with great curi- 
osity, even a little turn of expression in a historian, 
who lived long since. Why did I not observe and 
wonder at the fact, that here, on the page of proph- 
ecy, which was written five hundred years before- 
hand, which had been in Egypt three hundred years 
before Messiah "was cut off," was found a relation 
of interesting events which were to take place, as 
accurate as the record of them after they did take 
place ? Why was I not at least excited so far as to 
inquire into the matter ? The reason is, that man 
is inclined to run after falsehood and nonsense, with 
more activity than he is after truth and things of 
everlasting moment. Some millions of our race have 
found this out ; but there are more millions who do 
not believe it. 



356 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 



CHAPTER LXVI. 

AN OUTLINE OF HISTORY. 

The following passage of Scripture, taken from 
the same prophet, was not, if I now remember accu- 
rately, observed faithfully by me, until I had a hope 
in the Messiah who was "cut off." I am, however, 
very confident that if I had noticed it closely at any 
portion of my life, and had heard it expounded by any 
one acquainted with history, I should have deemed 
it worthy of a second reading. I might inform the 
reader that the passage is in the seventh chapter of 
Daniel, and ask him to take a Bible and peruse it ; 
but I deem it best on many accounts to transcribe 
the most of the chapter. 

" Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by 
night, and behold, the four winds of the heaven strove 
upon the great sea. And four great beasts came up 
from the sea, diverse one from another. The first 
was like a lion, and had eagle's wings : I beheld 
till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was 
lifted from the earth, and made stand upon the feet 
as a man, and a man's heart was given to it. And 
behold, another beast, a second, like to a bear, and 
it raised up itself on one side, and it had three 
ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it : and 
they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh. 
After this, I beheld, and lo, another, like a leop- 



THE AUTHOE'S RESCUE. 357 

ard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a 
fowl : the beast had also four heads ; and dominion 
was given to it. After this I saw in the night visions, 
and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and 
strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it 
devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the resi- 
due with the feet of it : and it was diverse from all 
the beasts that were before it ; and it had ten horns. 
I considered the horns, and behold, there came up 
among them another little horn, before whom there 
were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots : 
and behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of 
man, and a mouth speaking great things. 

" I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and 
the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white 
as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool : 
his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as 
burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth 
from before him : thousand thousands ministered unto 
him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood 
before him : the judgment was set, and the books 
were opened. I beheld then because of the voice of 
the great words which the horn spake : I beheld even 
till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and 
given to the burning flame. As concerning the rest 
of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away; 
yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time. 
I saw in the night visions, and behold, one like the 
Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and 
came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him 
near before him. And there was given him dominion, 
and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, 



358 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

and languages, should serve him : his dominion is an 
everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and 
his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. 

" I Daniel was grieved in my spirit in the midst 
of my body, and the visions of my head troubled me. 
I came near unto one of them that stood by, and 
asked him the truth of all this. So he told me, and 
made me know the interpretation of the things. 
These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, 
which shall arise out of the earth. But the saints of 
the Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess 
the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever. Then 
I would know the truth of the fourth beast, which 
was diverse from all the others, exceeding dreadful, 
whose teeth were of iron, and his nails of brass ; 
which devoured, brake in pieces, and stamped the 
residue with his feet ; and of the ten horns that were 
in his head, and of the other which came up, and 
before whom three fell ; even of that horn that had 
eyes, and a mouth that spake very great things, 
whose look was more stout than his fellows. I be- 
held, and the same horn made war with the saints, 
and prevailed against them ; until the Ancient of 
days came, and judgment was given to the saints of 
the Most High ; and the time came that the saints 
possessed the kingdom. Thus he said, The fourth 
beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which 
shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour 
the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break 
it in pieces. And the ten horns out of this kingdom 
are ten kings that shall arise : and another shall arise 
after thenjj and he shall be diverse from the first, 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 359 

and he shall subdue three kings. And he shall speak 
great words against the Most High, and shall wear 
out the saints of the Most High, and think to change 
times and laws : and they shall be given into his 
hand until a time and times and the dividing of time. 
But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away 
his dominion to consume and to destroy it unto the 
end. And the kingdom and dominion, and the 
greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, 
shall be given to the people of the saints of the 
Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting king- 
dom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him." 
Daniel 7 : 2-27. 

An outline of history for many centuries is desir- 
able. There are many who would be glad to be fa- 
miliar with the profile of the most prominent nations 
of the earth, for the last two thousand three hun- 
dred years. An ordinary attention to this chapter 
will furnish this much abbreviated, but very correct 
history. Those who complain of enfeebled memories, 
will find a remedy in the imagery of the verses we 
have transcribed. Those who desire it, can at any 
time obtain a very gratifying amount of historic in- 
formation, with trifling labor, and in a way which 
will forbid its departing from them. 

There is something in the texture of the youthful 
mind, which disposes it to lay hold on, and to retain 
figures either beautiful or terrible, especially if they 
are systematically striking. 

A teacher of history may communicate, I feel as- 
sured, after repeated trial, more knowledge in a given 
time, by causing the student to learn a number of 



360 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

passages taken from different prophets, than can be 
done in any other way. 

The chapter before us is one. The history begins 
five hundred years before the birth of the Redeemer, 
reaches us, and passes us by a very few items, and 
for aught we know, the time may be as inconsider- 
able in its duration. The first three verses tell us 
of great beasts coming up from the sea, diverse one 
from another. Elsewhere in the Bible, we are in- 
formed that the sea is the emblem of the restless and 
noisy populace of agitated nations. The prophets of 
God, when about to picture a power which reached 
its elevation after a long march through blood, where 
the feet were dipped in human gore at every stride, 
have used as an emblem a beast, wild and ferocious. 
By the accurate propriety of any picture, the memory 
is greatly assisted. On the fourth verse, which tells 
us of the lion which had eagle's wings, and whose 
wino-s were nlucked, Scott makes the following ob- 
servations : 

" The Chaldean empire, as advanced to its sum- 
mit of prosperity under Nebuchadnezzar, and as de- 
clining under Belshazzar, was intended by this beast. 
The lion was an emblem of Nebuchadnezzar's courage 
and success, in acquiring the dominion over his neigh- 
bors; and perhaps of his superior generosity and mag- 
nanimity, with which he ruled over the nations. The 
eagle's wings denoted the rapidity and unabated vigor 
with which he prosecuted his victories. But as the 
prophet saw this, he observed that the wings thereof 
were plucked. After the death of Nebuchadnezzar, 
the Chaldeans made no more conquests ; several of 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 3G1 

the subjected nations revolted. The Medes and Per- 
sians soon began to straiten them, till at length Baby- 
lon was besieged and taken, and so that monarchy 
was terminated. No longer did this beast appear 
rapid in conquest as an eagle, or courageous and 
terrible as a lion, but it was changed as it were into 
a human creature ; it stood on its feet as a man, and 
had a man's heart given to it. After Nebuchad- 
nezzar's death, the kings of Babylon became less ter- 
rible to their foes and subjects, and more cautious 
and even timid, till at length Belshazzar shut himself 
up in Babylon, not daring to face Cyrus, as a man 
would not venture to face a raging bear, which a lion 
would despise." 

The fifth verse tells us of another beast, like to a 
bear, which raised up itself on one side, and which 
had three ribs in its mouth. 

The individual who loves to learn, and who de- 
sires to remember important facts, is told in this 
verse, that the Chaldean empire was succeeded by 
that of the Medes and Persians. This bear raised 
itself up on one side, or in other words, pushed its 
victories towards the west alone, almost. This ani- 
mal had three ribs in its mouth, or, in other w^orcls, 
Babylon, Lydia, and Egypt were conquered, oppress- 
ed, or as it were devoured by the Persian bear. 

Concerning the sixth verse, which mentions the 
leopard with wings, and with four heads, our com- 
mentator makes the following remarks: " The bear 
having disappeared, the prophet saw an extraordi- 
nary leopard rise up in its stead. This was the em- 
blem of the Grecian or Macedonian empire, which 

O.use and fnre. 1 O 



362 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

for the time was the most renowned in the world. 
It was erected by Alexander the Great, on the ruins 
of the Persian monarchy, and it continued in four 
divisions under his successors. The leopard being 
exceedingly fierce and swift, represented the king- 
dom, and especially Alexander its founder ; but the 
swiftness of a quadruped was not an adequate emblem 
of the rapidity with which he made his conquests, as 
he subdued nations more speedily than others could 
march their armies through them. The leopard had 
therefore four wings of a fowl upon his back. When 
Alexander died, his kingdom was, after many con- 
tests among his captains, divided into four parts, 
Egypt, Syria, Macedonia, and Thrace with some 
regions of Asia Minor. These were the four heads 
of this third beast, and under them dominion was 
given to it, until it was gradually reduced by the 
next beast." 

The seventh and eighth verses tell us of the 
fourth beast, and describe the Romans in a few 
words, but very strikingly. This empire is called a 
"beast, strong and terrible. All who have read the 
history of Rome, and then read these verses, have 
wondered at the amount of character handed to us 
in these few words. They have wondered at the 
extent of the picture drawn in one single verse. The 
iron teeth, the devouring, and stamping, and break- 
ing in pieces, tell those who know something of the 
history of the world, of the people and nation here 
portrayed, at once. The historian knows that the 
fourth beast was indeed diverse from any that pre* 
ceded, and from any that have followed it. 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 3G3 

" This fourth beast evidently accords with the 
legs and feet of iron, which were seen by Nebuchad- 
nezzar in his visionary image, and which were at 
length divided into ten toes. It far exceeded in 
power, fierceness, and destructive rage, all that had 
gone before it, as well as in the extent and long 
duration of its dominion ; and no animal could be 
found so terrible and furious, as to lend it a suitable 
name. This was doubtless an emblem of the Roman 
state, the invincible fortitude, hardiness, and force of 
which perhaps were never equalled. By wars and 
conquests the Romans bore down all opposition, and 
reduced almost every kingdom or state in the known 
world, into some kind or degree of dependence ; drew 
all the spoil and wealth of many conquered nations, 
to enrich their proud capital ; and tyrannized over 
all that did not yield obedience to their authority. 
That which the Romans could not quietly enjoy in 
other countries they would give to other kings and 
rulers, that at all times when they would, they might 
take it again ; which liberality is here called stamp- 
ing the rest with their feet. 

" This fourth empire was governed in another 
manner, by other maxims, than any of the preced- 
ing, and in process of time it was divided into ten 
kingdoms, which have been thus numbered in the 
eighth century. 1. The Senate of Rome; 2. The 
Greeks at Ravenna ; 3. The Lombards in Lombardy ; 
4. The Huns in Hungary ; 5. The Alemanes in Ger- 
many; 6. The Franks in France; 7. The Burgun- 
dians in Burgundy; 8. The Goths in Spain; 9. The 
Britons ; 10. The Saxons in Britain. They are in- 



364 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

deed reckoned up in several ways, by different writers, 
according to the date assigned to their enumeration, 
but in general, it is clear that they were nearly the 
same with the principal kingdoms in Europe at this 
day. It is certain that the Roman empire was di- 
vided into ten kingdoms, and though they might be 
sometimes more and sometimes fewer, yet they were 
still known by the name of the ten kingdoms of the 
Western empire." Scott. 

The learned of the earth have praised one of their 
own number, for one particular trait of character be- 
longing to him in full measure. They have said that 
Sir Isaac Newton would not indulge in wild specula- 
tions, and vain conjecture. It is stated that in all 
his astronomical and philosophical researches, every 
doctrine which he advanced was built on fact, and 
that further than this he would not proceed. He 
seems to have preserved this feature of his mind 
while writing on prophecy. I never understood one 
fact concerning the ten horns of the fourth beast, 
until I read and closely noticed a passage of this 
philosopher's writing, concerning that beast. I knew 
that the Roman empire was divided, and that ten 
kingdoms had existed in Europe as fragments, or 
horns of that beast; but I did not know why eastern 
countries, over which the Roman sceptre had ex- 
tended, were not included. I knew that in Europe, 
for twelve hundred years, ten horns had been visible, 
but if Asia should be taken into the reckoning, the 
number of horns must be extended. The astronomer 
saw clearly enough why the kingdoms of Europe 
alone were to constitute the bodv and the horns of 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 365 

the beast. His words we will transcribe, for the sake 
of those who may wish to understand plainly this 
interesting part of history. 

"All the four beasts are still alive, though the 
dominion of the three first be taken away. This cor- 
responds with the declaration of the twelfth verse, 
that although their dominion was gone, they had 
their lives prolonged for a season and a time. The 
nations of Chaldea and Assyria are still the first 
beast ; those of Media and Persia are still the second 
beast ; those of Macedonia, Greece, Thrace, Asia 
Minor, Syria, and Egypt, are still the third ; and 
those of Europe on this side are still the fourth. 
Seeing therefore the body of the third beast is con- 
fined to the nations on this side of the river Eu- 
phrates, and the body of the fourth beast to the 
nations on this side Greece, we are to look for all the 
four heads of the third beast among the nations on 
this side the Euphrates, and for all the eleven horns 
of the fourth beast among the nations on this side of 
Greece. And therefore, at the breaking of the Greek 
empire into four kingdoms, we include no part of the 
Chaldeans, Medes, and Persians, in those kingdoms, 
because they belonged to the bodies of the two first 
beasts. Nor do we reckon the Greek empire seated 
at Constantinople among the horns of the fourth 
beast, because it belonged to the body of the third." 
Sir Isaac Newton. 

This is plain as the astronomer's doctrine of grav- 
itation. I pity the man who does not read ; and I 
pity the man who hastily reads his Bible, but is too 
ignorant to enjoy the wonderful picture so plainly de- 



366 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

lineated in these few verses. Men would teach their 
children history by causing them to commit verses 
of this character to memory, and explaining it to 
them, were it not that they have heretofore valued, 
and do still value the things of earth alone above 
every thing besides. I know a little boy and girl who 
were taught the outline of history and its general 
features for two thousand years, by lecturing on this 
chapter several times during the space of twelve 
hours ; so wonderfully does such imagery fix atten- 
tion, and invigorate the recollection. 

"While the prophet was considering these ten 
horns, he saw another little horn springing up among 
them. This evidently points out the power of the 
church and bishop of Rome, which, from small be- 
ginnings, thrust itself up among the ten kingdoms, 
and at length got possession of three of them, having 
turned out those who held them, namely, the ex- 
archate of Ravenna, the kingdom of the Lombards, 
and the state of Rome ; and the dominion of the 
Roman pontiff over these three kingdoms has ever 
since been denoted by his triple crown. In this horn, 
as the church of Rome became when it obtained tem- 
poral authority, were eyes like the eyes of a man. 
This circumstance denoted the policy, sagacity, subt- 
lety, and watchfulness by which the little horn would 
spy out occasions of extending and establishing its 
interests, and advancing its exorbitant pretensions; 
and the court of Rome has ever been remarkable for 
this above all the states in the world, as every person 
in the least acquainted with history must know. It 
had also a mouth speaking great things, and we shall 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 367 

have frequent occasion to speak of the arrogant claims, 
blasphemous titles, and great swelling words of van- 
ity of this horn. The style of 'his holiness,' and 
the claim of infallibility, and of a power to dispense 
with God's laws, to forgive sins, and to sell admis- 
sion into heaven, may serve as a specimen of the 
great things which this month hath spoken." Scott. 

This little horn, the pope of Rome, before whom 
three other horns were plucked up by the roots, has 
indeed spoken great things. After taking possession 
of the three thrones, and wearing a triple crown ever 
after to denote his power, he has claimed that and 
spoken that which shocks all who read, unless it be 
those w r hose feelings are so dull in holy things, that 
they are not moved at seeing a mortal pretend to all 
the attributes of Omnipotence. 

The twenty-fifth verse informs us that he should 
wear out the saints of the Most High for a certain 
period. And it is a fact so well known that he has 
burnt and slaughtered so many thousands of profes- 
sors of religion on account of their religion, so many 
tens of thousands more than any other power ever 
did, that I need not at present make any remarks on 
the expression, " wear out the saints," more than 
simply to quote the expression. The period during 
which they were to be given into his hand was " a 
time and times and the dividing of time." 

A time, one year, times, two years, the dividing 
of time, half a year. These three years and a half 
contained twelve hundred and sixty days. A pro- 
phetic day stood for a year. This period is men- 
tioned so often elsewhere, sometimes called " forty 



368 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

and two months," sometimes " three and a half 
years," and sometimes " a thousand two hundred 
and threescore days," that any who will make them- 
selves acquainted with the page of prophecy will feel 
at home here. There is nothing difficult or obscure 
in these periods. We can count twelve hundred and 
sixty days, and of course can count as many years. 
According to the ancient and general computation of 
thirty days to a month, we can know how many days 
were meant for forty and two months. 

" Thus matters will be left in his hands till £ a 
time and times and the dividing of time,' that is, 
for three years and a half, or forty-two months, which, 
reckoning thirty days to a month, and this w r as the 
general computation, make just one thousand two 
hundred and sixty days ; and these prophetical days 
signify just one thousand two hundred and sixty 
years- — a number we shall repeatedly meet with in 
the Revelation of St. John. At the expiration of this 
term, which is now not far distant, the dominion of 
this horn will cease ; he will be judged, condemned, 
and consumed, and his authority never revived to the 
end of the world." Scott. 

The ninth and fourteenth verses inclusive, tell of 
the casting down other authorities and the setting up 
of the dominion of the Man of Calvary. So much is 
told of the grandeur, majesty, splendor, and dread- 
fulness of the Ancient of days when he comes to pass 
sentence on the Roman power, to cast his body to the 
flames, and to overturn all opposers, that many have 
mistaken it for the final judgment. Although not 
the final conflagration, these verses do indeed speak 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 369 

of an awful visitation and of dreadful judgments. 
These hours of interest and of terror are before us, 
and we do not know but they are just at hand. 

It was once thought that the attention of the 
wicked would be greatly awakened if they should see 
the influence of the little horn at Rome over the other 
horns of Europe begin to decline. They had been 
told that appearances of the downfall of the Roman 
authority would be visible at the close of the twelve 
hundred and sixty days, and they have seen it, but 
it is looked upon by them without any interest what- 
ever. When the body of the beast is given to the 
flames, some are to lament ; but it is doubtful wheth- 
er or not they will know that it is Grod who is doing 
it. It seems that during the changes and revolutions 
before us, the red streams of retribution are to roll 
forth in different directions over the earth ; but men 
will blaspheme Grod because of their plagues. 

Application. We can improve the subject over 
which we have glanced, by enumerating the items 
or particulars which were to take place, and which 
have taken place since the days of Nebuchadnezzar. 
In giving this epitome, or making out this catalogue, 
let no one suppose that all the particulars can be 
brought into the list. I cannot do this, but I can 
designate enough to bring before us the kind of cre- 
dulity belonging to those who believe that events 
have happened such as seemingly fulfil this and other 
prophecies like it. Those who think that predictions 
are verified casually, are asked concerning the num- 
ber of accidents in which they believe. 

Seventeen hundred years since, infidel writers 
16* 



370 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

were quibbling concerning the facts of history which 
had taken place, and which belonged to Daniel's 
prophecy. These particulars seemed to give unbe- 
lievers pain, and they endeavored to avoid the truth- 
ful inference by saying, that the prophecy must have 
been written later than the time of Nebuchadnezzar. 
"What will those do who live so many centuries after 
this plea was first urged ? "What will they do with 
that part of the prediction which has been fulfilled 
during the last fifteen hundred years ? 

LIST OF HISTORIC ITEMS MENTIONED BY THE PROPHET IN THIS 
CHAPTER AS TAKING PLACE BETWEEN HIS DAY AND THE 
PRESENT TIME. 

1. The dominion was taken from the Chaldeans, 
or the lion, and given to the Medes and Persians, or 
to the bear. 

2. The conquests of the Medo-Persian empire 
were achieved in one direction, that is westwardly. 
The bear, it is said, " raised up itself on one side." 

3. The bear, it is said, had " three ribs in the 
mouth of it, between the teeth of it." The Persians 
conquered the kingdoms of Babylon, of Lydia, and 
of Egypt. They oppressed them, and devoured their 
revenues and their good things, as a ravenous beast 
does its prey. 

4. The dominion was to be taken from the bear 
and given to another, the leopard. The Grecians 
conquered the Persians. 

5. Alexander was said to conquer faster than 
others could march. His victories resembled an 
army flying through a nation, rather than encamping 
against it. The leopard had four wings on its back, 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 371 

representing the unusual rapidity with which the 
Macedonian dominion would be set up. 

6. This beast had four heads. "When Alexander 
died in his drunken revels at Babylon, his kingdom 
did not descend to his son, or to one or two of his 
officers ; if so, this beast would have had one or two 
heads ; but it was parted between four of his generals, 
and these four heads had dominion until the fourth 
beast was grown. 

7. The fourth beast, the nameless beast, was to 
take dominion from the four-headed leopard, devour- 
ing and breaking in pieces. 

8. This power, the Romans, was to be diverse 
from all the beasts before it. This is so strikingly 
understood by all who read only the alphabet of his- 
tory, that I need not name the instances of dissimi- 
larity. 

9. That which this beast could not devour, it 
was to stamp with his feet. This has already been 
noticed. 

10. It was to be divided into ten kingdoms^ rep- 
resented by the ten horns. 

11. This division into ten was to take place ex- 
clusive of the Chaldean, Persian, and Macedonian 
territories ; for these beasts, after losing dominion, 
were still to exist for a season and a time. 

12. There was to come up among the ten a little 
horn, the eleventh horn. 

13. This little horn w r as to pluck up three others 
by the roots. The bishop of Rome took hold on three 
kingdoms, denoted by his triple crown which he 
wears, and has kept them ever since. He did not take 



372 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

hold on four small kingdoms, for that would have 
been to pluck up four horns by the root. 

14. This little horn was to he watchful, saga- 
cious, and cunning. Every page of his history ex- 
plains this. 

15. High-sounding threats, great swelling words, 
a mouth speaking great things, a look more stout 
than his fellows, etc., were to be his characteristics. 
"Whoever will read but half a volume of European 
history since the pope wore the triple crown, will be 
at no loss respecting the great words against the 
Most High. 

16. He was to be diverse from the first kings. 
He was a clerical officer. 

17. He was to " wear out the saints of ihe Most 
High." If we but knew how many hundred thou- 
sand he put to death, of the most humble- walking 
and holy-living people on earth, a work that did not 
cease for more than a thousand years, we should say 
that he certainly did wear out the saints of the Most 
High, if such a thing has ever occurred since the 
gospel was preached. 

18. He was to " think to change times and laws." 
" Hath not the papal power arrogated the prerogative 
of making times holy or unholy, contrary to the word 
of God ? He hath commanded men everywhere to 
abstain from meat and cease from work, when God 
required no such thing, and has multiplied his holy 
days, till scarcely four of the six working days have 
been left for man's labor. At the same time he hath 
licensed intemperance and excess on his festivals and 
carnivals, and authorized licentious diversions on the 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 373 

Lord's own holy day. He hath pretended to change 
God's laws, or to dispense with obedience to them, 
that his own new laws might be observed ; forbidding 
to marry, and licensing fornication, and many things 
of this sort." Scott. He has indeed thought to 
change times and laws as no one else ever did. 

19. His career was to continue for twelve hun- 
dred and sixty years — for one thousand two hundred 
and threescore days ; for a time and times and the 
dividing of time ; for forty and two months. Many 
praying people think the judgment is now sitting, or 
about to sit. 

20. The last item is yet to take place. It is to 
come to pass hereafter. " One like the Son of man," 
yea, one who was once born one of the sons of men, 
will take possession of the whole earth. His king- 
dom will never he overturned. The greatness of the 
kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be given to 
people of the saints of the Most High. 

The prophet having been very accurate in the first 
nineteen particulars, and in others not noticed, I, for 
my part, can credit him for the twentieth. He who 
can see a train of events so plainly as to picture the 
outlines of twenty-three centuries, can, with the same 
assistance, see a century further. The Lord will 
reign ; let the earth rejoice. Who will not clap their 
hands ? 

Second application. If men did not love dark- 
ness rather than light, no one would ever have sup- 
posed, that for many long centuries prediction and 
subsequent facts happened to fit each other. Wo may 
safely say to these worshippers of chance, "Immor- 



374 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

tal friend, according to the same kind of casualty 
which you have been naming, God will happen to 
burn up the world, and it will chance that you will 
be called before his judgment throne, and there 
examined severely concerning your present conduct 
towards a bleeding Saviour." 

Postscript. In the chapter we have just re- 
viewed, it is not stated how long the ten horns were 
to last. The continuance of the ten kingdoms is not 
stated in this part of Daniel's visions, except that they 
were not to continue long, if at all, after the entire 
overthrow of the little horn, whose look was so stout 
and whose words were so blasphemous. Bat there 
are other portions of the holy book, where the ten 
kingdoms and the power which was to wear out the 
saints are placed in full view before us. In some of 
these chapters, it seems to be taught that ten horns 
would be in Europe, and finally be found to hate and 
to destroy the triple-crowned horn. Some have asked 
how it could be said that ten kingdoms have existed 
to represent ten horns, in a part of the earth once 
under the dominion of Rome, when so many changes 
have been constantly going on in Europe, and when 
so many of them have been at times, as it were, con- 
solidated into one. We may reply at any time to 
such an inquiry very fairly, that the ten horns have 
been there ; that making a kingdom tributary does 
not take away its existence. If there should have 
been at times, eleven, twelve, or more horns there for 
half a century or longer, this does not make it untrue 
that ten were there. Such inquiries as have been 
made, and such objections as have been urged, seem 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 375 

to many as unworthy of an answer*; but if a puerile 
cavil should appear weighty and important in the 
view of the unthinking or the uninformed, for his 
sake it needs an answer. Let us then pass briefly 
through an illustration which may aid us in under- 
standing each other. 

Suppose some feeble people should be suffering 
from the almost constant invasions of numerous and 
ferocious enemies. Suppose a powerful and benevo- 
lent prince sends them word that he will, for a num- 
ber of years — say thirty — maintain for their safety 
along their frontier ten garrisons, each to contain one 
hundred well armed men. Or suppose he is actu- 
ated by different designs and moved by other motives ; 
no matter how this is, so that his word is out for the 
support of a given number of fortifications contain- 
ing a thousand soldiers. Suppose the forts are built 
and remain a few years, when two of them are burned 
to the ground and rebuilt without delay; has there 
been any violation of the sovereign's word ? No, 
there was no material interruption in the continu- 
ance of the walls of strength ; furthermore, the 
troops, the most important part of the safeguard, are 
still there. Again, suppose the monarch sends and 
has two posts of strength demolished, but adjoining 
the spot where these stood, and immediately, he has 
other two buildings erected more capacious and more 
desirable ; does the promise still stand good ? We 
answer in the affirmative, and we believe no one 
would differ with us. Finally, suppose in addition 
to the ten garrisons, it could be shown that for seve- 
ral months during the thirty years, one more had 



376 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

"been maintained there ; that for one or two years 
out of the thirty, there had been there eleven instead 
of ten fortifications ; shall we call it a defect or a 
failure in the original undertaking? Or shall any 
seeming interruption, such as has been stated, de- 
stroy the propriety of our calling these the ten garri- 
sons of the frontier? The answer is, No, without 
dispute. 

So it is, and so it has been, respecting the ten 
horns which were to represent ten kingdoms of Eu- 
rope, once under the Roman sceptre. They have 
been there for twelve hundred and sixty years. If 
several have had their names changed according to 
the caprice of him who conquered, this change oi 
name did not destroy existence. If others have had 
their territorial limits changed, the nation was still 
there. If others have fallen while successors were 
forming in their room, the ten horns were still there. 
If during a few years out of a thousand, there were 
more than ten — if some temporary power reared its 
head, seeming to claim a place with the rest, and 
soon disappeared, it has not caused the beast to have 
less than ten horns. 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 377 



CHAPTER LXVII. 

IGNORANCE OF THE BIBLE. 

In prosecuting the all-important inquiry, " Is 
this book from heaven ?" I was at last compelled to 
confess that I had been ignorant of the contents of 
the Bible. I had read it and heard it all my life, 
excepting the five or six years of my established infi- 
delity, but of its contents I was darkly ignorant; and 
I discovered that my unbelieving companions were 
equally unacquainted with the holy page, and with 
the literature connected with its contents. I dis- 
covered that men had read history recorded after it 
had been acted, that they had read the same history 
in the Bible recorded beforehand, and that one was 
as plain as the other ; while most readers noticed it 
not, observed it not. Instances like this properly 
enumerated and explained, would swell volumes ; but 
I shall have space for one example only. Or rather, 
a single case at present must suffice us ; for if one 
specimen will not persuade the reader to look into 
the Bible, others will fail to win his attention. 

Here are instances of reading and not understand- 
ing that which is as plain as simple words ever are. 

I had read the history of Egypt and of Syria, 
while the Grecian monarchs sat on those thrones. I 
knew that Syria was north of Egypt, and of course 
that a Syrian would call Egypt the kingdom of the 
south. I had read that Ptolemy Philadelphus king 
of Egypt had contracted his daughter in marriage 



378 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

to the king of Syria. Her name was Berenice ; slie 
was poisoned in the kingdom of the north, in Syria, 
and her father died shortly after her. I had read 
that one from the same root with herself, her 
brother, had marched an army into Syria, and had 
prevailed, and had avenged his sister's death. JN T ow, 
when I read in the eleventh chapter of Daniel, seventh 
verse, " But out of a branch of her roots shall one 
stand up in his estate, which shall come with an 
army, and shall enter into the fortress of the king of 
the north, and shall deal against them, and shall pre- 
vail," I never noticed what the prophet was saying. 
I passed it by as though there was no meaning, or as 
though the meaning of a book said to come from 
heaven was unimportant. One history of Egypt and 
Syria was as plain as the other. Daniel's is brief. It 
is an epitome. It was written two hundred and fifty 
years before Berenice lived, but it is as plain as any 
thing Russell or Rollin ever wrote of ancient history. 
At the conclusion- of these extracts I will state why 
I have commenced as far down as the seventh verse. 
I had read that this brother of Berenice was called 
Euergetes, or benefactor, by the Egyptians ; for 
when he returned, he carried with him thousands of 
idols and captives, images and nobles of Syria, also 
much of gold which the son of Cyrus had long before 
taken away from Egypt. He outlived the king of 
Syria, with whom he had been fighting, several years. 
"What must I have thought when I read in the eighth 
and ninth verses, "He shall also carry captives into 
Egypt their gods, with their princes, and with their 
precious vessels of silver and of gold ; and he shall 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 379 

continue more years than the king of the north. So 
the king of the south shall come into his kingdom, 
and shall return into his own land." 

When I read this, I thought nothing or almost 
nothing of the passage — a passage where accurate 
and important history yet to come was written in 
few but plain words. I had partly forgotten, or re- 
membered but dimly, the items mentioned so strangely 
on the wonderful page ; and furthermore, we observe, 
and we understand, and we recollect any thing else 
with thrice the speed and aptitude with that which 
we exert towards any thing in the book of books. 
There it is again true, that skilful men surpass them- 
selves in framing objections, building difficulties, or 
weaving webs of ingenuity to perplex others or to 
quiet conscience. 

I had read that the sons of the king of Syria be- 
ing greatly provoked, assembled great forces, intend- 
ing to vanquish the king of the south. That one of 
them did push the war even to the very border of 
Egypt, and was likely to go into the very land of his 
adversary. This so aroused the Egyptian monarch, 
that he collected his ablest forces, went out to fight 
the king of the north, and obtained a speedy and most 
decisive victory over his enemy: but he was not 
strengthened by it ; for instead of pursuing his advan- 
tage, he was so elated and joyful that he gave himself 
up to feasting, to drunkenness, and to the most dis- 
gusting debaucheries. I read in this same chapter, 

" But his sons shall be stirred up, and shall 
assemble a multitude of great forces ; and one shall 
certainly come, and overflow, and pass through ; then 



380 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

shall he return, and be stirred up, even to his for- 
tress. And the king of the south shall be moved 
with choler, and shall come forth and fight with him, 
even with the king of the north ; and he shall set 
forth a great multitude, but the multitude shall be 
given into his hand. And when he hath taken away 
the multitude, his heart shall be lifted up, and he 
shall cast down many ten thousands ; but he shall 
not be strengthened by it." 

The next four verses give us a clear and plain ac- 
count of the history of Syria and Egypt. Very much 
is contained in few words. "We will first repeat the 
verses, and then note the remark of commentators. 

" For the king of the north shall return, and 
shall set forth a multitude greater than the former, 
and shall certainly come after certain years with a 
great army and with much riches. And in those 
times there shall many stand up against the king of 
the south : also the robbers of thy people shall exalt 
themselves to establish the vision ; but they shall 
fall. So the king of the north shall come, and cast 
up a mount, and take the most fenced cities ; and 
the arms of the south shall not withstand, neither 
his chosen people, neither shall there be any strength 
to withstand. But he that cometh against him shall 
do according to his own will, and none shall stand 
before him ; and he shall stand in the glorious land, 
which by his hand shall be consumed." 

The following are the historic facts as enumer- 
ated, written by the hand of Scott. 

" After some years, Antiochus king of Syria, or 
of the north, recovered from the effects of his late 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 381 

defeat, and Ptolemy Philopater king of Egypt being 
dead, and succeeded by his son Ptolemy Epiphanes, 
who was only four or five years of age, Antiochus 
raised a greater army than before, and amassed vast 
sums of money to defray the expenses of the war, by 
which he hoped to deprive the minor king of his do- 
minions. And at the same time that Antiochus 
marched his army to attack the Egyptian provinces, 
many other enemies stood up against the young king. 
For the conduct of his father, and of those abandoned 
ministers who now governed in his name, had so dis- 
gusted the Egyptians that they were ready to join 
Antiochus ; and Philip king of Macedon made a 
league with him against Ptolemy, stipulating to di- 
vide his kingdom between them. The persecuted 
Jews also became refractory, and broke off from their 
allegiance to the king of Egypt to join Antiochus, for 
this seems to be the meaning of the words trans- 
lated, ' the robbers of thy people.' These revolters 
exalted themselves against their former masters, and 
so helped to establish or to accomplish this vision, or 
prophecy ; but they were reduced by Ptolemy's forces, 
who, under Scopas, gained many advantages against 
those of Antiochus. However, the presence of that 
prince turned the scale in his favor, for he soon re- 
covered what Scopas had taken, and besieged and 
took Zidon, and others of Ptolemy's best fortified 
cities. So that the king of Egypt could not with- 
stand his arms, even with his choicest troops, but he 
carried all before him, and succeeded in his designs, 
and established his authority in the land of Judah, 
the glorious land of Grod's chosen people, and of his 



382 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

special presence, which was by him consumed in fur- 
nishing subsistence to his troops ; or rather, it was by 
him established, as some render the word, for it was 
favored, and prospered greatly under his government." 

From what we have transcribed, every thinking 
reader can fairly see and understand the following 
fact. Should any one desire to impress vividly upon 
his recollection the leading points of history belong- 
ing to many of the most conspicuous nations of the 
earth, generation after generation, he has only to re- 
member a few such chapters as this from which we 
have been quoting, and his task is accomplished. 
God, in telling his people, or " the wise," of the fu- 
ture calamities or welfare of his church, spoke of 
course about those nations which favored or which 
oppressed his children. 

The prophets, or those historians who wrote many 
centuries before the events transpired, comprised 
more facts in few words, and used expressions more 
striking to the lively fancy, and more vividly, dis- 
tinctly, and historically correct, than any others who 
ever held a pen. I need not go on through the chap- 
ter before us. Like many others, it contains a history 
of those who hated or those who favored the church, 
down to our day, and a little beyond us. Those who 
wish, can read the holy book, and read profane his- 
tory, and hold them side by side, or they can look at 
the labors of commentators, who have done this for us, 
and thereby saved us much toil. I shall copy only 
one more verse, inviting the reader to become familiar 
with all the rest of the prophecy, for his own good. 

Antiochus strove to get possession of Egypt. He 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 35J 

mustered all liis strength, and put forth all his ener- 
gies. He exerted all his ingenuity to get advantage 
of Ptolemy by treaty. He hoped to have some assist- 
ance by giving his daughter in marriage. Ptolemy 
took her, and she, the famous Cleopatra, became queen 
of Egypt ; yet she did not help her designing father, 
but preferred the interests of her husband, and aided 
him with all her influence. The Jews, called upright 
ones, helped Antiochus in his attempts against Egypt. 
Daniel, verse seventeenth, informed the Israelites of 
all these events, in the following words : 

" He shall also set his face to enter with the 
strength of his whole kingdom, and upright ones with 
him; thus shall he do: and he shall give him the 
daughter of women, corrupting her ; but she shall 
not stand on his side, neither be for him." 

I cannot transcribe every singular and beautiful 
prophecy in the Bible, for then the size of this vol- 
ume would deter many from reading it. I com- 
menced at the seventh verse, because the history 
thereafter foretold was that which followed the days 
of the king who had the Old Testament translated 
into Greek. The prophecy of Daniel had been writ- 
ten between two and three hundred years before it 
found its way to the Alexandrian library. But inas- 
much as infidels, as well as Christians, speak of this 
Greek copy, called the Septuagint, I concluded to 
quote only those predictions which came to pass 
after the translation was made. Not finding it expe- 
dient to remark on all the chapter, I have noticed a 
portion of the part for which we have the authority 
of scoffers respecting the priority of its date. 



384 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

CHAPTER LXVIII. 

THE LAST RESORT. 

While reading, I found evidence against my sys- 
tem of infidelity wherever I turned, such as meets 
every one who ventures to read closely. There was 
one process of investigation, and only one which was 
left for me to pursue, unless I yielded. That process 
was to cast away all records and traditions, to sit 
down and endeavor to decide the question by the aid 
of reason alone. This seemed inviting. It seemed 
to make man his own judge. I had always heard 
my companions the deists calling reason the celes- 
tial lamp, the only light, the polar star, and other 
names of triumphant admiration. I felt a disposition, 
as it seemed to me, to walk along the path of reason 
quietly and alone, and to notice objects on either 
hand fairly and deliberately. I made the attempt, 
and the following is something of the result of my 
last resort. 

The goodness of (tod. This seemed to be a start- 
ing point, and one of the first facts to fix on. My 
associates were willing to speak of the goodness of 
God, and I thought I saw it manifested, while I 
looked over creation. I saw fruit drop from the over- 
loaded tree. I saw the full crop wave in the field, 
and barns crowded at home. The breeze that passed 
me in summer was fresh and fragrant. The cold 
spring was delightful to the parched palate. The 
flower was fashioned to please the eye which rested 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 385 

on it. The hum of the grove and the gush of the 
waterfall were calculated to communicate happiness 
through the ear. In short, the indications of a Cre- 
ator's kindness were in every direction, and in num- 
ber really countless. I thought that nothing was 
more rational than to fix upon it as a certain truth, 
that the Maker of all things is good. To settle down 
upon this doctrine was pleasing enough, except that 
certain contingent facts intruded themselves. They 
were calculated to produce some degree of uneasiness, 
especially if followed out in all their bearings. The 
first fact and the inquiries it excited were as follows : 
The Christians speak as loudly of the kindness, the 
daily kindness, and the benevolence of Grod as we do. 
Have they learned it of us, or have we learned of 
them ; or how is it that we agree ? 

Second fact. Although we think that our reason 
has discovered the goodness and the purity of G-od so 
plainly, yet pagans who had no guide but reason, 
have always worshipped him as revengeful and pol- 
luted. The ancient enlightened nations, the Greeks, 
and then the Romans, with so much learning, sung 
about the intrigues and adulteries, the frauds and the 
cruelties of their deities, although they had no Bible 
to interrupt their reason. Out of all the nations that 
do exist, or ever did exist without our Scriptures, 
might not reason have taught some one of them the 
goodness and the purity of Grod ? Might not their 
sages be able to give a character of Grod, something 
nearly as correct as we can hear from the most un- 
learned with us ? In the following unadorned fact, 
there was something fitted to excite the fear that the 

Cause and Cure. 1 7 



386 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

army of deists had received their knowledge, either 
directly or circuitously, from the book which they dis- 
owned. It is a fact, that were I to go to ten hundred 
thousand of the most learned Asiatics or other pagans 
now alive, one after another, and hear them speak of 
G-od, I should not receive a character half as correct, 
according to the creed of deists, as that which I might 
ohtain from the first ten ploughmen I met, provided 
there was a Bible and a meeting-house in the land 
where they lived. I knew that reason could see 
through the mysteries of gunpowder in the course of a 
minute after it is explained ; but it was long before the 
discovery was made. I knew that reason assents to 
the first principles of astronomy, as soon as they are 
presented ; nothing appears plainer : but reason was 
long in finding out these truths. Thus I could not 
tell but that, although, as soon as the Bible informs 
those who hate it in Christian lands of certain truths 
about Grod, nothing appears plainer to them, they may 
think they have always known it, while the most en- 
ergetic minds where the Bible is not do not learn so 
fast. They certainly never have been known to find 
out the excellence and purity of Omnipotence, unas- 
sisted. Although somewhat suspicious that this doc- 
trine of the unbounded goodness, and wisdom, and 
power, and purity of God, had first been taught by one 
book alone, knowing it to be true I concluded to rest 
upon it as so, and to look around for other facts, or 
for rational and plain inferences. 

Doctrines inquired after. The following ques- 
tions and facts commingled would pass in succession 
through mv mind. 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 387 

We agree that Grod is good, and wise, and kind, 
like a tender parent. Having cast away the Scrip- 
tures, we agree that Grod has not told us certainly 
whether we live again after death or not. He has not 
told us, if we do live, how long it is to be — seventy 
years again, or longer ? I knew that reason could 
not decide these inquiries ; because no three of my 
associates, the advocates of reason, out of all 1 could 
meet with, ever agreed on these particulars. Accord- 
ing to our belief, he has not told us, if we live here- 
after, whether it is to be in connection with a body 
or not. I should like to know. We are not told 
whether we are to be judged or not for what we do 
to-day. It would be well to know this. Shall we 
live always? Will our judgment be severe? Will 
there be sickness in the next state, or is it all health ? 
Those who admire reason most do not know, for two 
of them do not believe alike. Reason has not taught ; 
of course it is an uncertain guide, or there is no in- 
formation given us. I thought the color of the rain- 
bow a token of the Creator's kindness ; but I would 
rather it had been black, than not to have known 
whether I am to live after I am buried. I wish he 
had told me. I thought that our Father made the 
color of the forest leaf green, because it fits the eye ; 
but I would agree it should be red always hereafter, 
if I could only find out whether or not I am to be 
judged for my conduct. Is my every-day conduct to 
be reviewed hereafter ? I wish our Father had told 
us. It would not have been hard for him to have 
done this, or cost much time. Thus I was tossed 
from point to point of several sharp prominences. 



388 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

To say that reason was our heavenly lamp, and that 
her worshippers had never yet discovered these things, 
or that they discovered differently, for they thought 
differently, was somewhat awkward. To say that I 
must act every minute, and yet it was not very im- 
portant for me to know whether or not I was ever to 
be tried for my actions, did not sound smoothly. To 
say that reason had taught us what our Creator hated 
most, was too hard, because the disciples of reason 
all differed fundamentally here also ; some thought 
one way and some another. To say that I need not 
know what pleased or displeased him most, was still 
unharmonious. I began to doubt whether " the celes- 
tial lamp" of reason would show me objects more 
distinctly than the page of Matthew. 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 389 



CHAPTER LXIX. 

THE LAST RESORT. 

If I sat down and inquired of reason soberly, 
whether the great First Cause had made man as we 
now find him, or we are a fallen race, I found the 
pathway more than cloudy. If I said that man is a 
fallen creature, and did not come as he now is from 
the pure hand, I seemed to be running into the old 
Bible track. If I said that men were not wicked, 
that a majority of them were not depraved, it seemed 
to sound sweetly, and to harmonize with what all my 
companions said when together and while disputing 
on religious doctrines. But when deists talk else- 
where, when they speak, having forgotten all contro- 
versy, their testimony is not the same. I heard one 
of them speaking of a class of men opposed to him 
in politics. He pronounced them utterly destitute 
of principle. He declared them dishonest in every 
thing ; and when excited, would mingle curses with 
his expressions of contempt. When speaking of those 
who were called the pious, the devotedly pious, he was 
also severe. Their zeal he called either fanaticism 
or hypocrisy, often both. When dealing with his fel- 
low-men, he always took notes, bonds, etc., and was 
as certain to treat every one as though he was de- 
fective, as they are who believe in man's depravity. 
In short, I found the three following facts to exist in 
the world. 



390 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

1. Those who denied the fall of man spoke as 
complainingly, when not discussing the doctrine, of 
the prevalence of slander, of avarice, selfishness, etc., 
as did the disciples of the Bible. 

2. They spoke from day to day of having discov- 
ered something censurable in those of whom they 
had thought better ; but it was not a matter of con- 
tinuous occurrence for them to speak of surprise at 
having found one and another more honest, disinter- 
ested, and amiable than they were supposed to be. 

3. The following question is answered by the 
candid with entire agreement. Suppose you were to 
take a number of children and try to teach them all 
that is lovely and good ; again, take an equal number, 
and try to teach them all that is bad and unlovely : 
in which case would you most readily succeed ? In 
which are children the more apt scholars, in honor, 
honesty, self-denial, temperance, humility, etc., or in 
haughtiness, self-conceit, ignorance, sensuality, injus- 
tice, etc. ? I believed that the man who would say 
" our race is not fallen into sin so as to make it easier 
for us to be taught vice than virtue," had been hand- 
ling sin himself, and that it did not appear unlovely 
to him. 

I believed that those who admit the three facts 
stated above, might as well admit the fall of man. 

I believed that he who, after looking fairly around 
on his fellow-creatures, denied these three facts, had 
certainly fallen himself, if others had not. 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 391 

CHAPTER LXX. 

CONCLUDING SUMMARY. 

I had been told, and I could not dispute it, that 
God was a being of infinitudes. Christians and un- 
believers agreed that there was no boundary line 
belonging to his wisdom, his power, or the number of 
his days. They said that there was no possibility of 
numbering the animals or the worlds he had made ; 
that there was no limit to creation. And all the 
glasses through which the philosopher looked spoke 
the same language. 

If endless might be written on his works around 
us, I could not tell but that it might be his plan for 
our existence to be endless, I hoped it might be so, 
for annihilation always looked dark to me. At times 
it seemed as though it would be cruel, if, after mak- 
ing me taste the cup of existence, he should dash it 
from my lips. I should prefer never having been, to 
giving up my identity at death. I was ready to ex- 
claim, "My Maker might have told me how long I 
am to exist;" but the Bible seemed to reply, " He 
has." If my feelings called out that a Being of infi- 
nite goodness might have offered me the glorious 
prize of unending happiness on some terms, the Bible 
seemed to reply, "He has." 

I knew that the soul which inhabits these bodies 
was in the habit of craving. It has been so made 
that it craves, and craves much happiness, hating 
any decay in its felicity. I thought that if in a shin- 



392 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

ing country, where nothing cold or gloomy was ever 
to enter, and in a society of beings peaceful and beau- 
tiful^ I should be offered joys which were never to 
diminish, it would indeed be a prize. what a 
prize ! This would resemble what it would take a 
Grod to offer, a Grod of benevolence. Who knows but 
our God may have made us this offer ? The Bible 
seemed to say, " He has." I thought if any one man 
had this offer, he had good reason to leap for joy. 
Has this offer been extended to any one ? The Bible 
seemed to answer, " To all." And are the terms 
easy? I knew that, if I listened to that book, the 
answer was bare acceptance ; and I could not com- 
plain that it was added, " Nothing unjust or unclean 
must be taken into that abode." 

A collateral inquiry presented itself, which was 
this, ""What does reason say concerning the offer, if 
it is made, or if it ever should be intended, Can man 
reject, or forfeit it; neglect or turn away from it?" 
I looked around me upon facts which none could 
question. I saw that amidst the train of our mercies 
and enjoyments health is not the least, yet thousands 
are casting it from them utterly and for ever. I 
looked into a family — peace would sweeten all their 
joys ; yet how many cast it from them, and their 
happiness expires. I could not look at any good 
thing between the earth and skies, which man might 
not trample on. And I did not know but in one 
more instance he might turn away from an offered 
favor, namely, the offer of heaven. 

If the Creator does not depart from his usual 
method, he will not compel me to receive any favor. 



THE AUTHOR'S RESCUE. 393 

What if he should act consistently with every other 
feature of his work, and leave it possible for me to 
turn away from everlasting joys? 

I found that wherever I turned, and in whatever 
direction I looked, common-sense, reason, and reflec- 
tion pronounced a solemn amen to every doctrine 
taught in that fearful and precious book. I found 
that all the truth to which reason ever assented had 
been first taught by revelation. 

After reading a book called " Doddridge's Rise 
and Progress of Religion in the Soul ;" also " Bax- 
ter's Saints' Everlasting Rest ;" after wading through 
many mistakes concerning the way in which a soul 
was directed to turn to God, I came to certain con- 
clusions, like the following. 

Conclusion. If I am ordered to live peaceably 
with all men, hoping at last to reach the land of 
peace, it would not hurt me if I tried to obey. 

I need not blame the Bible if it prohibits all glut- 
tony, sensuality, and improper indulgence of appe- 
tite ; for greater energies of body and of soul are 
secured to those who listen and comply. 

I am not injured when I am told to compassion- 
ate the suffering, because those who strive to relieve 
the afflicted are always made more happy. 

I need not grow angry at the page of inspiration, 
if all profanity is forbidden there ; for those who vio- 
late that precept, only have their dignity lessened in 
the eye of others, while they reap no profit and re- 
ceive no gain. 

If I am told that life is brief and its termination 
hastening, that pleasures around us here are very 



394 CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. 

transitory, and that afflictions will meet us, I need 
not complain, for it is certainly true. These admo- 
nitions do not delude me. 

There is no unkindness in the call, if I am invited 
to think of a habitation very bright, exceedingly beau- 
tiful, where death can never enter, and where the 
tear-drop was never seen. If I am told to lift my 
eyes towards a world where want was never known ; 
where the song is always singing ; and where the 
lovely, the splendid company may increase, but never 
will diminish, I am not unwise, if I ask, " How am 
I to get there ?" 

If I am told that those who desire this prize are 
directed to express their wishes for it to One who can 
hear the lowest whisper, I cannot say there is any 
great difficulty in such an undertaking. 

If I am told that this Hearer of requests once 
became man, and that all my ill deserts — I have done 
wrong so often that I do not know how much of his 
frown I do merit — he bore in his own body on the 
tree, that I may escape suffering, I can never say the 
offer is not a kind one. If all are invited to apply, I 
am included in the number. 

I may conclude that I am sincere in my requests, 
if I am willing to begin a battle now with sin. 

I will try, and I will ask for help. For ever is a 
distant journey, and I will try. Boundless joys may 
be coveted. The struggle shall be commenced to-day, 
and I will seek for aid. There is a loveliness in doing 
right. " Lord, I have sinned against heaven and 
before thee, and am not worthy to be called thy son." 



BRIEF SKETCH 



THE AUTHOR'S LIFE 



The author of this striking work, which has been blessed in 
bringing scores of infidels to Christ, and of which not far from 
100,000 copies have been circulated, was eminent as an intel- 
ligent infidel physician, and then as an able minister of Christ. 
He loved much, for he had much forgiven. 

He was born September 24, 1793, near Jonesborough, East 
Tennessee; and died at Quincy, Illinois, October 17, 1844, aged 
51. His parents were from Virginia, his father an officer of the 
church, and his mother, who was of Scotch descent, eminently 
pious. In childhood and youth he was sedate and contemplative, 
his mind seeming to receive an impress from the lofty and ro- 
mantic scenery around the Nolachucky, near the banks of which 
he was reared. At twelve he thought himself converted, and 
soon entered Washington College, near his father's residence, at 
which he graduated at sixteen, when he proceeded to Danville, 
Kentucky, where his elder brother was then settled in the min- 
istry, and entered on the study of medicine with the celebrated 
Dr. Ephraim McDowell. 

At nineteen, just as he was entering on the practice of medi- 
cine, he joined himself as surgeon to a Kentucky regiment then 
proceeding to Canada in the war with Great Britain, where he 
suffered every privation. In one march, in the severe cold and 
deep snows of a wild Indian territory, exhausted by hunger and 
fatigue, he suffered himself to be left unobserved, and resolved 
there to lie down and die. But his friend and cousin, the brave 



396 SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR'S LIFE. 

Col. Allen, -who afterwards fell at Tippecanoe, missed him, went 
back, roused him from his deathlike slumber, took him on his 
powerful horse, and thus saved him for the work God had ap- 
pointed him to do. Returning from his northern campaign, he 
entered on the practice of medicine in Jonesborough ; but at the 
call of Generals Jackson and Coffee, he enlisted again as surgeon 
of a regiment for the South, and in the wilds of Alabama flooded 
with rain was seized by fever, reduced to the utmost extremity. 
but raised up ; and at Mobile on the eve of an expected battle, 
received the news of peace. 

He returned to Jonesborough, resumed his profession, at 
twenty-two married a daughter of David Deaderick, to whom 
allusion is made in his work as a highly respected infidel mer- 
chant of Tennessee, and became eminent as a physician, his 
practice extending into neighboring counties, and bringing him 
an income of some $3,000 a year, which he at length relin- 
quished that he might win souls to Christ in the ministry. 

In the pursuit of medical science, while infidelity swayed the 
higher circles, and the works of Volney, Voltaire, and Paine were 
in high repute, Dr. Nelson — like many who in early life obtained 
a false hope of their conversion — was led to believe that he had 
been self-deceived, and that all religion, and the Bible itself, was 
a delusion. He became an honest unreflecting deist, in which 
scepticism he was but confirmed by his connection with the 
army and his subsequent relations in life. 

The wonderful processes of his mind in giving up this infi- 
delity, by reluctantly detecting the dishonesty and unfairness of 
Voltaire and other infidel writers, and by a patient, intelligent 
examination of the whole subject in his own heart, in the lives 
and conduct of believers and unbelievers, in practical writings, 
and especially in the word of God, form perhaps the most inter- 
esting portion of his now celebrated work. It is hard for any 
reader to question his sincerity, the stern integrity, patience, and 
thoroughness of his investigation, or doubt that he was led by 
the Holy Spirit in the true and right way. 

At the age of twenty-five he joined the Presbyterian church, 
of which his father was an elder, deploring his long rejection of 
the Saviour he now delighted to honor, and resolving to redeem 



SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR'S LIFE. 397 

the time by the unreserved consecration of all his powers to him. 
At first his diffidence scarcely allowed him to lead others in 
prayer; but his inventive mind, warm heart, and ceaseless energy 
found many means of usefulness, including the wide circulation 
of good books, while in his extensive medical practice. It is 
stated that a sermon he heard from the lamented Dr. Cornelius, 
who passed through Tennessee, fired his mind with the most 
enlarged missionary spirit, which expired only with his life. 

At about the age of thirty-three he gave himself publicly to 
the ministry of reconciliation, assisted for a time in editing a 
religious periodical, and was soon installed in Danville, Ken- 
tucky, where he had imbibed his infidelity, as successor of his 
worthy deceased brother, who had done so much for the church 
and college there. He soon proved that he had indeed been 
called to the work of the ministry. He became " a burning and 
a shining light," not only to his own congregation, but far and 
wide throughout the state, where the rich effusions of the Spirit 
abundantly attended his labors ] and it was those revivals which 
were the manifest precursors of the great revival of 1831, which 
extended throughout the land, and added to the churches more 
than one hundred thousand souls. He seemed to imbibe, in 
measure, the whole spirit of our Lord. In personal efforts for 
the salvation of individuals, he labored like Harlan Page. In 
the pulpit, his tall, manly form and kindled eye, his frankness 
and generosity of spirit, the gushing love of his heart for souls, 
his bold, free, original eloquence, his powerful appeals to the 
heart and conscience, his full and clear exhibition of Christ and 
his salvation, attracted and fixed the attention of his hearers. 
And his missionary spirit was large as the world. Especially 
was his attention directed to the moral wastes, and the training 
of pious young men, who were then brought into the church in 
such numbers, for the ministry and missionary work at home and 
abroad. 

It was this spirit that led him to plan and lay the foundation 
of Marion College in Missouri, for which he visited our Eastern 
cities, where his fervent appeals at once for money and for the 
salvation of his hearers, endeared him to tens of thousands. 
Unexpected events thwarting his expectations in Missouri, he 



398 SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR'S LIFE. 

transferred his efforts to forming a somewhat similar establish- 
ment at Quincy, Illinois, freely to educate young men as minis- 
ters and missionaries. But in the midst of these exhausting 
efforts, in which he expended all his personal means, he was 
attacked with epilepsy or paralysis, which gradually unfitted him 
for labor, and terminated his life at the age of 51. 

He wrote the Cause and Cure of Infidelity about 1836, in 
the first summer of his residence in Illinois, chiefly under the 
shade of four large oaks, drawing mainly from the resources of 
his own mind and memory. He also wrote another treatise en- 
titled "Wealth and Honor," breathing a missionary spirit as 
expansive as the ruins of the fall, summoning the whole energies 
of the church of God for the world's redemption, and showing 
that her wealth and her honor were in rescuing lost souls, and 
adding them as gems to the Redeemer's crown. He carried this 
work to the East for publication, but it is now supposed to be 
irrecoverably lost. 

In his declining health, and often in severe suffering, he 
mourned mainly that he could not preach the gospel and labor 
to win sinners to Christ; but he murmured not against the 
divine will. When the hour of his departure drew nigh, he 
called to him his wife and so many of his eleven children as 
were near, saying, " My Master calls. I am going home. Kiss 
me, my children, and take your last farewell, for I shall soon be in 
a state of insensibility, and shall not know you." He expressed 
his wishes in various respects, and then said, " It is well," and 
slumbered till the resurrection-morn. 

Dr. Nelson well knew the power of sacred music, and some- 
times composed hymns which were sung on the occasions on 
which he preached, two of which are annexed. 

REST IN HEAVEN. 

Sleep not, the Saviour cries, 
On this low, earthly ground ; 
Press on — above the skies, 
There shall your rest be found. 

Chorus. — Where the pilgrim reposes, the fields are all green, 
There day never closes, nor clouds intervene: 



SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR'S LIFE. 399 

the forms that are there, such as eye hath not seen; 
the songs they sing there, with hosannas between, 
While the river of life flows freely. 

On earth cold storms arise, 

And clouds obscure the sun; 

For rest the pilgrim sighs — 

But there his work is done. — Chorus. 

My soul, be not dismayed, 

But gird thee for the race : 

I'll ask his hourly aid 

To reach that happy place. — Chorus. 



A FAIRER LAND. 
"Twas told me in life's early day, 

That pleasure's stream did flow 
Gently beside life's peaceful way — 

I have not found it so. 

I thought there grew on earthly ground 

Some buds without decay; 
But not a single flower I've found 

That does not fade away. 

I wish to see a fairer land — 

I've heard of one on high, 
"Where every tear by one kind hand 

Is wiped from every eye. 

'Tis said the King of that bright place 
Still welcomes travellers there : 

come, then, let us seek his grace — 
Unseen, he hears our prayer. 



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